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A SHORT HISTORY 

OF 

GERMANY 

From the Earliest Times 
to the Year 1913 



BY 

FRANCIS M. SCHIRP, Ph.D. 

Regis High School, New York City 



ST. LOUIS, MO., 1015 

Published by B. Herder 

17 South Broadway 

FREIBURG (Baden) I LONDON, W. C. 

Germany 68, Great Russell St. 




Copyright, 1915, 

by 

Joseph Gummersbach 



All rights reserved 
Printed in U. S. A. 



NOV 29 1915 



S3* 



PREFACE 

A concise survey of the history of Germany will, 
no doubt, be welcomed by many Americans, both 
those of German descent and affiliation and the many 
who are anxious to learn more about the past of the 
Teutons' Fatherland. 

The present little volume is based on Guggenber- 
ger's " History of the Christian Era," which has been 
freely made use of by permission of the publisher. 
The chapters on the Reformation period are a sum- 
mary of Johannes Janssen's masterly treatment of 
those times. 

The author also wishes to acknowledge his indebt- 
edness to his friend Mr. Joseph H. Praetz, L.L.B., 
for valuable assistance. 

May the little work make friends throughout the 
length and breadth of our country and help towards 
creating a better understanding and appreciation of 
a people which has always proved a true friend of 
the United States. 

July, 1915. F. M. S. 



CHAPTER 

T 
X 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

XIII 

XIV 

XV 

XVI 

XVII 

XVIII 

XIX 

XX 

XXI 

XXII 

XXIII 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Ancient Germans i 

The Contact with the Romans .... 6 

Arminius, the Liberator 10 

The Migration of Nations 14 

Chlodwig 18 

St. Boniface, Apostle of Germany ... 24 

Charles the Great 30 

The Century After Charles the Great . 40 

Henry I 42 

Otto I, the Great . i ....... 45 

Henry IV ........... 52 

The First Crusade 62 

Henry V 68 

The Hohenstaufens — Frederick I, Bar- 

barossa 72 

The Papacy, the Beacon Tower of the 

Nations 82 

Knighthood 87 

Burgher and Peasant in the Middle Ages . 91 

Rudolph I of Habsburg 95 

Maximilian I 98 

The Renaissance 105 

The Great Invention 11 1 

The Eve of the Religious Revolution . .117 
The Religious Revolution . . . - . . . 123 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

XXIV 

XXV 

XXVI 

XXVII 

XXVIII 



PAGE 



Effects of the Religious Revolution — The 
Catholic Revival 142 

The Thirty Years' War 153 

French Depredations 170 

The Turkish Wars of Leopold I . . . . 176 

Frederick II, the Great, and Maria 
Theresia 183 

XXIX Germany in the Dust 195 

XXX The Wars of Liberation 200 

XXXI A Period of Monarchical Reaction . . . 207 

XXXII Frederick William IV — The Year 1848 . 214 

XXXIII William I — The Wars of 1864 and 1866 . 221 

XXXIV The Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871 . . 227 
XXXV The New Empire . . . . . . . . . 234 

XXXVI The Kulturkampf . 240 

XXXVII Twenty-five Years Under William II . . 246 
APPENDIX 

I Constitution and Administration of the 

German Empire 250 

II The German Military System .... 254 
III Social Legislation . 258 



A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 



THE ANCIENT GERMANS 

The territory extending from the Rhine to the 
Vistula, from the Alps to the North and Baltic Seas, 
was first called Germany (Ger mania) by the Ro- 
mans in the time of Julius Caesar, 59 b. c. 

Now one of the most productive and fairest of 
European countries, at the time of the birth of Christ 
it was covered by marsh and forest land, sheltering 
birds of prey and infested with bears, wolves, 
aurochs, and boars. Lacking the most primitive 
developments of towns, roads, and bridges, and dis- 
satisfied with the meagre forest fare, the inhabitants 
migrated and occupied the more cultivated lands 
of neighboring peoples. Centuries afterwards, the 
monks cleared large tracts of virgin forest and 
drained the swamp-lands, promoted agriculture and 
discouraged the wanderings of the tribes so that the 
people recognized the necessity of exchanging the 
uncertain abode of the nomad for the fixed habita- 
tion of the peasant. 



2 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

The ancient Germans were fine types of men, 
warriors of big physique — all freemen and all 
equal, but united by a strong fraternal bond (Ger- 
manus, Latin for "a brother") and always ready 
to defend their free institutions with the sword. 
War and the chase were their chief occupations and 
made for a constant and unyielding manhood with 
sturdy and bulky bodies, so that the warlike Romans, 
struck with fear and awe when first in the presence 
of the gigantic statures of the Germans, had to ac- 
custom their eyes before they would fight with them. 
Simplicity of manners and purity of morals com- 
bined with outdoor pursuits, endowed the ancient 
Germans with those qualities admired by the Ro- 
mans and which have left their impress on many suc- 
ceeding generations. 

The dress was chiefly made of skins, of animals 
with some of linen and wool, woven by the women. 
At first they lived in scattered huts, grouping tilled 
lands, meadows, and woodland around: — a dozen 
or more neighboring farms forming a village, sev- 
eral villages making a " gau," and many gaus com- 
posing the tribe; thus the tribe of the Ubii lived 
around Coin (Cologne), the Treveri on the Moselle, 
and the Cherusci on the Weser. 

The ancient Germans, preeminently a nation of 
freemen, compelled their prisoners of war with off- 
spring to serve as farm-hands, and as serfs they en- 



THE ANCIENT GERMANS 3 

joyed no civil rights. The freemen alone could 
carry arms, acquire landed property, and participate 
in the assembly held at appointed, times in which the 
affairs of the village or gau were discussed and 
ordered, and infractions of the rules of conduct 
adjudged and punishment decreed. 

All freemen capable of bearing arms were liable 
to military service, and when not so engaged, the 
chase was their favorite pastime. The leader of 
the army of freemen, called Heerbann, was a duke 
(Herzog) ; he was elected by the popular assembly. 
The arms most in use were the spear, used for hand- 
to-hand combat and for attack, the sword, and the 
broad arrow. For defence, a wooden shield was 
usually carried, very few warriors using mail or 
helmet. 

The ancient Teutons excelled in loyalty to kin, 
tribe, and chieftain, in hospitality, and love of free- 
dom. In the midst of all dangers they stood loyally 
by their chosen leader. Treason and cowardice were 
considered the greatest of crimes, punishable by 
death. A German's word was as good as his bond 
— once plighted it was held inviolably sacred. The 
door of even the humblest hut was open to the 
stranger. He found a welcome place at the family 
board. If the host himself lacked the means of 
hospitality, he would lead him to a more fortunate 
neighbor, where both were assured of a friendly wel- 



4 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

come. The distinguishing trait, however, was love 
of freedom, and to be free men, their greatest pride. 
The lustre of these virtues was, however, dimmed 
by two serious failings, drinking and gambling. 
When not employed in the chase or in war, they 
would remain inactive for days, held by an uncon- 
querable aversion for all peaceable labor. Whiling 
away leisure hours with drinking bouts, they fre- 
quently indulged to excess their fondess for mead, in 
the intervals playing dice and hazarding in passionate 
play their very means of subsistence, their wealth, 
and even wife and children. 

In religion the pagan ideas about venerating vari- 
ous gods and goddesses prevailed. Wuotan (Wo- 
dan), one-eyed, was considered the supreme god, the 
bestower of victory and god of warlike valor. 
Donar was the god of thunder and the strongest 
son of Wuotan and his mother Earth. He held 
dominion over the winds and rain. The goddess 
Freya was invoked to give and preserve domestic 
happiness. The days of the week were sacred to the 
deities — Sunday was called Wodensday and sacred 
to Wodan; Thursday was sacred to Donar and to 
this day is called Donnerstag in the German lan- 
guage; Friday was the goddess Freya's day. The 
concepts of the gods and goddesses, as above out- 
lined, corresponded to all the ancient beliefs about 
such matters in that gods were designated for virtues 



THE ANCIENT GERMANS 5 

and vices, etc. ; there are, however, traces which show 
that the original belief in one God was not entirely 
lost, and the name of God, used without the article, 
and signifying a being all-present and all-powerful, 
is found in all the Teutonic dialects. But, from a 
feeling of awe, the name was rarely pronounced. 

The ancient Germans did not worship their gods in 
temples. They fancied that on the summit of a high 
mountain or in the recesses of the densest forest all 
sacrifices to their gods should be offered up, and 
there, at the same time, all feasts and banquets were 
held. Theirs was also a firm belief in a hereafter. 
Whatever seemed to each to be the height of pleas- 
ure here on earth, was hoped for hereafter in Wal- 
halla. Those fallen in battle were conducted by 
Valkyries to Wodan in the Himmelsburg, there to 
continue their earthly existence in a glorified state. 
By day these heroes delighted in the chase and war 
contests, the wounds which were received being 
healed at night as if by magic. Reconciled, the 
heroes would sit down at the feast and drink mead 
out of the horns of the aurochs. The next morning 
they would rise whole and refreshed to start the 
bloody sport anew. 



II 

THE CONTACT WITH THE ROMANS 

Historical records account for the German people 
back to the second century before the birth of Christ* 
when the Romans first came in conflict with them. 
There is evidence that long before that time com- 
munication had been established between the Ger- 
mans and southern civilization, and while it is an his- 
torical fact that occasionally travellers from the 
Mediterranean had made their way into the regions 
beyond the Alps, hardly any records of their jour- 
neys are extant. 

It is said that the first Germans to encounter the 
Romans were the Cimbri and Teutones, probably 
coming from Denmark and appearing on the fron- 
tiers of Gaul, b.c. 113. These people were of gigan- 
tic stature, with long flaxen hair and large blue eyes. 
They decisively defeated the Romans in several bat- 
tles, and Gaul lay open before them without de- 
fence, for victory had forsaken the Roman eagle and 
Rome, amazed and helpless, seemed doomed to con- 
quest. Fortunately for the Romans, the German 
tribes suddenly abandoned their threatened invasion 



CONTACT WITH THE ROMANS 7 

of Gaul, crossed the Pyrenees and poured into Spain, 
with which nation they waged a futile war of three 
years' duration. N Meanwhile the Romans seized the 
unexpected opportunity and made ready for defence. 
On their return the Cimbri and Teutones were de- 
feated by the Roman general Marius, who had 
strongly entrenched himself with a new army on the 
Rhone. When Julius Caesar was appointed gover- 
nor of Gaul (59 B.C.), the westernmost part of what 
is now Germany was in the hands of various Gallic 
tribes. The Rhine practically formed the boundary 
between Gallia and Germania, though one Gallic 
tribe, the Menapii, is said to have occupied territory 
beyond the Rhine at its mouth. Shortly before the 
arrival of Caesar an invading force of Germans had 
even seized and settled down in what is now Alsace 
(72 b.c.).. At this time the Gauls were being 
pressed by the Germans along the whole frontier, 
and several of Caesar's campaigns were operations 
either against the Germans or against Gallic tribes 
set in motion by the Germans. In 58 b.c. Ariovis- 
tus, King of the powerful Germanic tribe of the 
Suevi, who had crossed the Rhine and subdued the 
greater part of eastern Gaul, was defeated by Caesar 
and driven back across the river. After defeating 
the Usipetes and Tenet eri and driving them beyond 
the Rhine, Caesar himself crossed that river, but ef- 
fected no permanent settlement. The whole of 



8 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Gaul, however, as far as the Rhine, became a Ro- 
man province. 

The civil wars raging in Rome diverted the atten- 
tion of the Romans from Germany. Meantime sev- 
eral German tribes made inroads into Gaul with im- 
punity. After peace had been established in Italy, 
Augustus, the first Roman emperor, himself hastened 
to the Rhine, erected fortifications along the bank 
of this river to check the progress of the enemy, 
and gave his valiant stepson Nero Claudius Drusus 
the chief command against them. In the year 12 
B.C. this great military leader annexed what is now 
Holland, crossed the Weser, and advanced as far as 
the Elbe, receiving the homage and submission of 
several petty tribes. After his death, his brother 
Tiberius invaded the country of the Usipetes and 
Tencteri, whom he subdued and threatened with ex- 
termination unless they persuaded the Sicambri to 
yield. Upon this the chiefs of the Sicambri were 
sent to negotiate peace, but were treacherously seized 
by Tiberius, who suddenly attacked and subdued the 
whole tribe. Tiberius did not continue to commit 
these acts of violence and treachery, but sought to 
gain the confidence of the Germans by peaceable 
means. Sentius, who was afterwards prefect of the 
Rhine, treated the people with such humanity that 
they voluntarily adopted the customs and acquired 
the useful arts of the Romans. But P. Quinctilius 



CONTACT WITH THE ROMANS 9 

Varus, Sentius's successor, soon began to tyrannize 
over the German tribes by rigorously enforcing the 
Roman laws and beating and executing free-born 
men. This was a thing unheard of by the liberty- 
loving Germans, and a bitter hatred against the op- 
pressor took root in their hearts. 



Ill 

ARMI'NIUS, THE LIBERATOR 

At the time of the oppression of the Germans by 
Varus, an athletic youth, named Arminius (Her- 
man), returned to his country. He was the son of a 
Cheruscan chief and had been taken to Rome as a 
hostage. There he had served in the Roman army 
and become skilled in the art of warfare. As a re- 
ward for his excellent services the Romans had be- 
stowed upon him the honors of knighthood. In 
spite of the distinction gained at Rome, he had 
remained loyal to his German tribe. Gifted with 
eloquence and animated by an enthusiastic love of 
liberty, he appeared among his disheartened country- 
men who were groaning under the yoke of slavery 
and longing for liberty. In secret he united himself 
with the chiefs of several tribes and with them 
planned the deliverance of their country from Ro- 
man rule. But in order to destroy the Romans, 
who were numerous and strong, he was forced to 
have recourse to a ruse. By the prearranged sedi- 
tion of a distant tribe, Varus was lured into the 
Teutoburg Forest, between the Lippe and the Weser, 

10 



ARMINIUS, THE LIBERATOR n 

through which he had to march in order to quell the 
above revolt. No sooner had he entered the forest 
with three legions, when the dreadful German war 
song arose and a shower of stones, arrows, and jave- 
lins fell upon them. After three days' righting his 
army of 40,000 men was almost completely annihi- 
lated (a. d. 9). Varus himself was wounded and 
put an end to his life. 

As a result of this defeat the Romans were com- 
pelled to leave the territory east of the Rhine. Ar- 
minius had thus become the liberator of the German 
people. 

The Cherusci now for a time became the princi- 
pal tribe of Germany. Peace reigned awhile. Ti- 
berius was raised to the imperial throne, and the son 
of Drusus, who afterwards received the surname of 
Germanicus, was placed at the head of the forces on 
the Rhine, in the hope of retrieving the defeat of 
Varus and reconquering Germany. He made re- 
peated attempts, but effected little beyond occasional 
devastations of German territories (14-16 a.d.). 
The Roman possessions beyond the Rhine and the 
Danube were mere outposts for the better security 
of the land within these rivers. The land fenced in 
by the rampart of Domitian, strengthened by the 
wall of Probus which joined the Rhine at Deutz with 
the Danube at Kehlheim, was hardly more than such 
an outpost on a great scale. From the time the Ro- 



12 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

mans had reached the Danube and the Rhine, the 
warfare of Rome became defensive. 

During the long period of peace which followed 
the war of liberation, important changes took place 
in the interior of Germany. The Germans passed 
from their half -nomadic and pastoral state to the 
more settled life of agriculture. Wheat raising and 
the cultivation of vineyards and orchards were be- 
gun. German adventurers, sometimes whole tribes, 
took service in the Roman army ; prominent warriors 
were promoted to places of honor and trust. The 
Romans entered into commercial relations with 
purely Teutonic races; smaller tribes coalesced into 
larger communities; the old names, mentioned by 
Caesar and Tacitus, disappeared; new names of pow- 
erful confederations took their place. Thus the 
Goths, who had come from Scandinavia to the Dan- 
ube and the northern shore of the Black Sea, the 
Saxons on either side of the Weser, Burgundians, 
Alamanni, and Franks on the Rhine, began to press 
with great persistency against the frontiers. 

Toward the middle of the third century, Goths, 
Gepidae, Herulians, and other tribes overran the 
northeastern frontiers of the Empire and devastated 
Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, and por- 
tions of Asia Minor. Two emperors, Decius and 
Claudius II, lost their lives in these campaigns. 
Aurelian gained a victory over the Goths, but relin- 



ARMINIUS, THE LIBERATOR 13 

quished Dacia to them, exacting their promise not 
to harass Moesia (244-270). Henceforth the 
Goths, for nearly a century, kept peace with the 
Romans. 

About the same time the Franks ravaged Gaul and 
Spain, and the Suevi and Alamanni crossed into 
Italy; the Alamanni, in a more recent invasion of 
Italy, were defeated by Aurelian (270), the Franks 
and the Burgundians by Probus (256—277). 

Almost the whole family of Constantine the Great 
was engaged in the defensive war against Teutonic 
nations. Constantius Chlorus, the father of the first 
Christian emperor, defeated the Alamanni; Constan- 
tine the Great himself fought and checked the Goths 
in two wars, and defeated the Vandals; Julian, while 
still Caesar, defeated the Alamanni and Ripuarian 
Franks, and assigned to the Salian Franks lands in 
northern Gaul. It was during the reign of Valen- 
tinian, that the above-mentioned Teutonic nations 
pressed with ever-increasing force against the whole 
of the northern frontiers of the Empire; it was in 
the year of his death (375), that the irruption of the 
Huns set the whole mass of barbarians in seething 
motion, and that the territory within the boundaries 
of the Roman Empire so long successfully defended, 
began to be taken and occupied by Germanic races. 



IV 

THE MIGRATION OF NATIONS 

About the year 375, the Huns, a barbarous people, 
invaded Europe. This caused a general migration 
of the nations of Europe, one nation crowding out 
the other. The Huns were Turanians of the Turk- 
ish family, driven from the north of Asia a few cen- 
turies previously. Fleet and indefatigable horse- 
men, low in stature, wild in features and appearance, 
and ruthless in conduct, they carried terror and de- 
vastation wherever they went. In 375 they crossed 
the Volga, where they met the Goths, the first of the 
Teutonic nations to accept Christianity from Roman 
captives, slaves, merchants, soldiers, and mission- 
aries. The Goths comprised two chief divisions: 
the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths (eastern and west- 
ern Goths). The former had formed a kingdom on 
the Baltic and had worked their way down to the 
mouth of the Danube. East of the Ostrogoths dwelt 
the Alans, a mixed race, west, on the northern bank 
of the Danube, the Visigoths. Most of the Chris- 
tian Goths were Arians. A bishop of their own 
race, Ulfilas, gave them the Gothic alphabet, a writ- 

14 



THE MIGRATION OF NATIONS 15 

ten language, and a translation of a great portion of 
the Bible, and thus became the founder of Teutonic 
literature. 

The Huns overpowered the Alans, made them vas- 
sals, and with their aid overcame the Ostrogoths. 
The latter were allowed to have their own chiefs, 
but subject to the Huns. The three nations next 
marched against the Visigoths (376). 

Two hundred thousand Visigoths, thus threatened 
by a formidable alliance, asked the Roman Emperor 
Valens' leave to cross the Danube and settled in 
Thrace as subjects or allies of the Empire. They 
were followed by others of their countrymen whom 
it was not possible to keep far off when so many of 
their people were on the other side of the river. The 
treacherous and inhuman treatment which they had 
to suffer at the hands of the Roman officers induced 
them to call their former enemies to their aid. Re- 
inforced by bands of Ostrogoths, Alans, and Huns, 
they overran Thrace, spreading abroad ruin with fire 
and sword. Valens hastened thither from Asia, and 
met them in the battle of Hadrianople (378). He 
was completely defeated, hardly a third of his army 
escaping. The wounded emperor, it is said, perished 
in a hut to which the Goths had set fire. 

About the middle of the fifth century the Huns, 
under Attila, set out for Gaul, sacking and burning 
on their march all the towns and villages, especially 



16 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

in the vicinity of the Rhine. This great barbarian 
destroyer was justly called the " Scourge of God," 
because he was believed to have been sent by God 
to punish the world. Near Chalons-sur-Marne, on 
the Catalaunian Fields, one of the most important 
battles in the history of the world was fought (451). 
Attila, utterly defeated, withdrew from the field 
during the night, and soon after returned to Hun- 
gary, where he died in 453 or 454, whilst organizing 
a new expedition against Constantinople. 

The Visigoths, who during the reign of the great 
Emperor Theodosius lived in peace with the Ro- 
mans, invaded Italy under the leadership of Alaric, 
aqd after his death penetrated into Gaul and Spain. 
Here they founded the Visigothic Kingdom, with 
Toulouse as its capital. This kingdom soon em- 
braced the greater part of Spain and Gaul as far as 
the Loire. The Burgundians settled in southeastern 
Gaul. The Franks extended their territories from 
Belgium to the northern coast of Gaul. The Lango- 
bards settled in northern Italy. To the Romans lit- 
tle more than Italy was left. Blended with other 
nations, which continually poured into their terri- 
tory, they had no longer any attachment either to the 
imperial government or to emperors who could not 
defend them against their enemies. Odovaker, a 
Teutonic chief, in the year 476 put an end to the 
Roman Empire. The regions of northern Germany 



THE MIGRATION OF NATIONS 17 

abandoned by the wandering nations, were settled by 
Slav tribes coming from the East. Among them 
were the Wends, who moved into- the country be- 
tween the Elbe and Oder. 



■ V 

CHLODWIG 

Of all German tribes the Franks alone founded an 
enduring empire. The Franks were divided into 
two principal branches, the Saltan (from Ysala, 
Yssel) and the Ripuarian (from ripa,.bank of the 
Rhine), with several under-tribes governed by sepa- 
rate chiefs, until Clovis or Chlodwig united the dif- 
ferent tribes into one kingdom. He is therefore 
considered the founder of the Kingdom of the 
Franks. He belonged to the Merovingian House, 
so called after his grandfather Merovig or Merwig. 

Having thus consolidated his power, Chlodwig 
overran Gaul and defeated Syagrius in the battle of 
Soissons (486). By this victory Chlodwig de- 
stroyed the last remnant of Roman power in Gaul. 
He extended his kingdom as far as the Loire and 
made Paris his capital. 

By the conquest of Gaul Chlodwig came in conflict 
with the neighboring Alamanni, who dwelt eastward 
on the Upper and Middle Rhine. Like the Frisians 
in the North, and the Thuringians in the Northeast, 
they had taken no part in the migration of nations. 

18 



CHLODWIG 19 

Disturbed in their southern seats, they pushed north- 
ward, threatening the Ripuarians under Sigibert of 
Cologne. Chlodwig marched to his aid and fought 
a great battle at Zulpich, near Cologne. In the 
stress of battle, when the Franks were sorely pressed 
by the Alamanni, Chlodwig vowed to embrace the 
faith of his wife, Chlotilda, the Catholic niece of the 
Burgundian Gundobad, if Christ should grant him 
the victory. He gained a victory most important in 
its results. It established Frankish supremacy over 
the Alamanni and led to the baptism of Chlodwig 
and his sister and 3,000 of his warriors with their 
families, by St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, and to 
the conversion of the Franks to the Catholic faith. 
The Franks, both Salian and Ripuarian, followed 
Chlodwig's example, and in one generation paganism 
disappeared among them. 

With his brave Franks Chlodwig also conquered 
the Visigoths and took possession of their country as 
far as the Garonne River. The Kingdom of the 
Franks now extended from the North Sea to the 
Garonne, from the Atlantic Ocean to far beyond the 
Rhine. Though Chlodwig was unscrupulous, ag- 
gressive, and cruel even to his own family, his career 
brought it to pass in the hands of Providence, that 
the Franks and not the Goths directed the destinies 
of nearly all the Teutonic nations, and that the 
Catholic faith, not Arianism, became their religion. 



20 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Though the Merovingian kings and their personal 
followers became Christians, they did not cease to be 
barbarians. Their lives were a constant struggle be- 
tween opposing principles. Only gradually did the 
Church, and especially the monasteries, succeed in 
taming the wild passions of the Franks, still inflamed 
as they were by contact with Gallo-Roman corrup- 
tion. 

The chief divisions of the Frankish Kingdom 
were Australia or East Frankland, with Rheims or 
Metz for capitals ; Burgundy with Orleans for capi- 
tal; in these two provinces (or kingdoms) the origi- 
nal Teutonic spirit prevailed. In Neustria or West 
Frankland, with Paris or Soissons for capitals, and 
in southern Aquitaine a greater sympathy with Ro- 
man ways made itself felt in the course of time. 

After the death of Chlodwig, his four sons divided 
the kingdom among themselves. They conquered 
Thuringia (527), Burgundy (534), and Bavaria be- 
tween 541-548. Chlotaire I, who reunited the 
kingdom, opened a series of wars with the Saxons, 
which lasted two centuries and a half and explains 
the deep hatred which the Saxons bore the Franks. 

Under the following Merovingians great disputes 
arose, which brought unspeakable misfortune upon 
the kingdom. They left the government to their 
chief domestic officer, who was called Maior domus 
or Mayor of the Palace. The most distinguished of 



CHLODWIG 21 

the Mayors of the Palace were Pipin of Heristal, 
Charles Martel, and Pipin the Short. 

Pipin of Heristal (687-714) defeated the Neu- 
strians at Testri, near Soissons, became Mayor of 
the Palace for the whole Frankish Kingdom, made 
the office hereditary in the Carolingian House, and 
assumed the title of Duke and Prince of the Franks. 
By the victory of Testri the Teutonic character of 
the Frankish Kingdom was restored, and the German 
element triumphed over the Gallo-Roman for the 
next two centuries. 

Charles Martel (714-741) gained great renown 
by his victory over the Saracens (732). The Sara- 
cens were Mahometans, who conquered the northern 
coast of Africa, landed in Spain, and soon brought 
that entire country under their rule. Then they 
crossed the Pyrenees, invaded the Frankish King- 
dom, threatening to overrun the whole of Europe, 
everywhere spreading terror, rapine, and devasta- 
tion. Fortunately, the Frankish Kingdom possessed 
at that time in the person of Duke Charles Martel 
the greatest general in Christendom. Between 
Tours and Poitiers the two greatest armies of the 
world met to decide whether Christianity or Islam, 
European or Asiatic civilization, should rule the 
continent. The defeat of the Saracens was so crush- 
ing that they precipitately recrossed the Pyrenees. 
By it, all Europe was saved from the yoke of bar- 



22 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

barism and infidelity. On that battlefield Charles 
gained the surname of Mattel (hammer), because, 
like a hammer, he had crushed the power of Islam. 
His son Pipin the Short (752-768) wished to 
combine the dignity of a king with the power he had 
inherited from his father. He, therefore, sent en- 
voys to Pope St. Zachary, asking if he should be 
king who bore the mere name, or he who wielded the 
royal power? The Pontiff answered, that it would 
be better and more profitable for him to be king who 
had the power. Thereupon Childeric III, the last 
Merovingian, was shorn and sent to a monastery ac- 
cording to the custom of the times. Pipin the Short, 
in 752, ascended the throne of the Franks and .be- 
came the founder of the Carolingian House. The 
new king was anointed by St. Boniface, the great 
apostle of Germany, and two years later, Pope 
Stephen II crossed the Alps and by crowning Pipin, 
ratified the action of St. Zachary. Pipin, later on, 
showed himself grateful to the Pope. The Lom- 
bards, already masters of a great part of Italy, aimed 
at subduing the whole, and indeed conquered the 
province of Ravenna, which, under the name of 
Exarchate, had until then belonged to the emperors 
of Constantinople. Rome itself being on the point 
of falling into their power, Pipin, at the Pope's re- 
quest, twice hastened with his army across the Alps 
into Italy, wrested the provinces and cities, which 



CHLODWIG 23 

had been usurped by the Lombards, from them and 
donated a great portion of his conquests to the Pope. 
This donation formed the beginning of the Papal 
States, which lasted until 1870. 



VI 

ST. BONIFACE, APOSTLE OF GERMANY 

During the first centuries the teachings of Chris- 
tianity had been spread from Rome into several sec- 
tions of southern and western Germany. Thus 
Strassburg, Speyer, Worms, Mayence, Treves, and 
Cologne were raised to the dignity of episcopal sees 
in comparatively early times. Among the Franks, 
Christianity had been spread since the conversion of 
Chlodwig. In northern and middle Germany, how- 
ever, paganism still prevailed. 

At that time Divine Providence raised pious men 
on the British Isles, where Christianity had already 
taken firm root, who were to take the message of 
salvation to the heathen Germans. The first of these 
missionaries were St. Fridolin, St. Columba, St. 
Kilian, and St. Willibrord. But the most distin- 
guished of them all was St. Boniface. He not only 
succeeded in converting several tribes to Christianity 
but secured for the Church a firm position in Ger- 
many. For this reason especially he has merited the 
title " Apostle of the Germans." 

Boniface, formerly called Winfred, of distin- 

24 



APOSTLE OF GERMANY 25 

guished English parentage, was born in the year 
680. In the solitude of the Benedictine cloister 
Win f red was prepared for his holy work. Having 
been ordained a priest, he resolved to devote his life 
to the conversion of the heathens. He at first went 
to the Frisians on the North Sea, afterwards, with 
the approval of the Pope, to the people of Hesse 
and Thuringia. 

In the neighborhood of Geismar, in Hesse, stood 
a very ancient oak, consecrated to Donar, the god of 
thunder, under which the heathen people of that 
district were wont to sacrifice. Boniface knew that 
this tree was considered sacred. In order, there- 
fore, to show the heathen people the powerlessness 
of their gods, he struck the tree with his axe. The 
terrified heathens looked up towards the sky and 
back to Boniface ; for they surely expected that Do- 
nar would strike down the felon with a thunderbolt. 
However, the tree fell, and the Apostle remained un- 
harmed. Thereupon the pagans renounced their 
powerless gods, who were not even able to save their 
sacred tree from weak human hands, and desired to 
be baptized. From the wood of the felled oak Boni- 
face built a chapel in honor of St. Peter. 
• Accompanied by a few disciples, Boniface now 
went forth, from place to place, into the heart of 
Bavaria. Everywhere the people assembled in large 
numbers to hear the word of the powerful mission- 



26 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

ary who had felled Donar's oak. The multitude 
that came to be baptized was so great that Boniface 
with his few disciples could not prepare all for the 
reception of the sacraments. He, therefore, sum- 
moned new missionaries from his native country. 
The English monasteries, upon his request, sent him 
zealous priests and pious nuns. Where they settled, 
numerous churches and cloisters arose. 

Having been appointed bishop by the Holy Father, 
Boniface created several bishoprics in the converted 
districts, as Ratisbon, Wiirzburg, Passau, Eichstadt, 
and Erfurt. With the assistance of his excellent 
pupil Sturmius, he founded a monastery at Fulda, 
with the famous cloister school. At last, after an 
episcopate of twenty-five years, he made his perma- 
nent residence at Mayence, as archbishop, Mayence 
being simultaneously raised to the dignity of a 
metropolitan see, to which the bishoprics of Tongern, 
Cologne, Worms, Speyer, and Utrecht were suffra- 
gan, and " all peoples of Germany whom thy word 
has led to the knowledge of Christ ". were subordi- 
nate. Prior to this period Boniface had solved, as 
far as human efforts would allow, the hardest task 
of his life : the religious and moral elevation of the 
Church in the Frankish Kingdom. 

Now at last Boniface was permitted to rest, now 
he could look for a reward from God that was 
worthy of him, now he was allowed to stretch forth 



APOSTLE OF GERMANY 27 

his hand for the palm of triumph, for the palm of 
martyrdom. On the shores of the Zuider Sea, 
where more than forty years before,' in the ardor of 
his youth, he had begun his life-work, he succumbed 
to the strokes of Christ's enemies, on June 5, 755. 

It is impossible to appraise the worth of all the 
improvement of mind and morals, of the strength- 
ening of mental and physical powers and all advance- 
ment and enlightenment, as expressed by the German 
word " Kultur" resulting from the labors of St. 
Boniface. Christianizing means civilizing. For 
man stands the higher " culturally," the truer, the 
purer, the more spiritual his ideas are about his own 
being, his position in the universe, his destiny; the 
loftier the ideals of his life, the nobler the ethical 
motives directing all his deeds and omissions. This 
is true of the individual, of peoples, of mankind in 
its entirety. On that account, if for nothing else, 
Christ is the greatest benefactor of mankind. On 
that account, those men who take up his life- task and 
advance the Christian view of life and Christian con- 
duct are civilizers and benefactors of the nations in 
the truest sense of the words. On that account, 
Boniface is the greatest civilizer of Germany; for his 
whole life is an uninterrupted but victorious fight of 
Christianity against the barbarity, ignorance, and 
moral degeneration of paganism. 

The monasteries and abbeys erected by Boniface 



28 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

were not only homes of cloistered piety and asceti- 
cism, but every one of them became a centre of intel- 
lectual culture, art, and learning, both ecclesiastical 
and profane. It is known how much Fulda and the 
other abbeys founded by Boniface, or at least made 
possible by him, have done for the intellectual ad- 
vancement of Germany in the Middle Ages. Great 
were his achievements especially in the field of fe- 
male education. In the convent schools of the Eng- 
lish orders transplanted by Boniface on German soil, 
the native German girls were educated' in piety and 
instructed in things secular as well as religious, in 
manual work, in horticulture, in the domestic 
sciences. In these schools the children of the bet- 
ter classes received a higher education commensurate 
with their social standing. Thus it came about that 
a pious, modest, and industrious womanhood arose, 
which pervaded the family life with its spirit, en- 
nobling and sanctifying it; that Germany attained 
such a high plane of culture as to surpass all other 
nations; that, finally, at the time when knighthood 
was in flower, the charm and gracefulness, the pur- 
ity and modesty, the learning and piety of the Ger- 
man woman was made the object of homage and 
admiration the like of which had not existed before. 
The convents were a civilizing factor in the best 
meaning of the word. 

It was not given to Boniface to behold the glory 



APOSTLE OF GERMANY 29 

of the days when the " Roman Emperor of the 
German Nation " after his coronation showed him- 
self to his people, with the diadem on his brow, 
holding in one hand the scepter, in the other the 
globe; when the cross, the spear, the sword were 
borne before him, and when surrounded by his 
princes in shining armor and by the representa- 
tives of the free cities, he was joyfully greeted by his 
people with the words : " Christ conquers, Christ 
rules, Christ triumphs;" — but Boniface had pre- 
pared the glory of those times. He had written into 
the heart of the German people those eternal prin- 
ciples of constitutional freedom, which are the 
foundation of every Christian society, expressed in 
the words, " Christ conquers, Christ rules, Christ 
triumphs." The victory of mind over matter, of 
right over might, and the fact that the various semi- 
barbarous Germanic peoples, continually warring 
with one another, gradually suffering themselves to 
be ruled by divine ideas, united at first by the bonds 
of faith and then by national ties, all this making 
possible the Empires of Charles the Great and Otto 
the Great, the grand Middle Ages of Germany with 
their incomparable power, learning, and art, may be 
traced directly to the influence of Boniface, the 
Apostle of Germany. 



CHAPTER VII 

CHARLES THE GREAT 

Pipin the Short had divided the Kingdom of the 
Franks between his two sons Charles and Karlmann. 
A few years after, Karlmann died, and his vassals, 
the bishops and nobles of Burgundy and Alamannia, 
paid homage to Charles as King of all the Frankish 
realms. 

Charles (Charles the Great, Charlemagne) made 
it his life work to unify all Germanic peoples into 
one great Christian empire. 

Wars of Charles.— Charles had inherited from 
his father, and from Charles Martel, his grandfather, 
the duty of protecting Catholic Europe from the 
Saracens, Slavs, and heathen Saxons, and he pushed 
the outer defences of Christendom into territories 
still living in paganism and savagery, by promoting 
the conversion of all new subjects recently subdued, 
and he continued the temporal protectorate over the 
Church and the Holy See, which the Franks had 
assumed under Pipin the Short. His most difficult 
task was the conquest of the Saxons. 

The Saxons, living between the Rhine and the 

30 



CHARLES THE GREAT 31 

Elbe, were the hereditary foes both of the Franks 
and of Christianity. They were in the habit of 
making inroads into the neighboring Frankish terri- 
tory for plunder and murder. They even took their 
captives with them to be sacrificed to their supreme 
god Wodan. 

Charles resolved to subdue this restless pagan 
people and to convert them to Christianity. The 
fight against the Saxons lasted thirty years, for they 
defended their ancient liberty, religion, and custom- 
ary laws with the greatest tenacity. Whenever 
Charles invaded their territory, they promised sub- 
mission and even asked to be baptized in great num- 
bers ; but no sooner had he turned his back upon 
their country, than they rose again to destroy the 
churches and chapels founded by Charles, and to slay 
the priests. They even penetrated far into Frank- 
ish territory. Nine times they thus shook off the 
foreign yoke. 

Their chief leader was Widnkind, who again and 
again incited his people to revolt. After numerous 
hopeless struggles, Widukind finally lost faith in 
the power of his gods. He offered peace and asked 
for baptism. From that moment he remained loyal 
to the Frankish King, and the real conversion of 
the Saxons began. To strengthen and extend the 
Christian religion, Charles founded the bishoprics 
of Minister, Osnabriick, Paderborn, and others. 



32 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Soon after his first campaign against the Saxons, 
Charles, at the entreaties of Pope Hadrian I, crossed 
the Alps at the head of a gallant army against 
Desiderius, King of the Lombards, who had made 
inroads upon the territory granted to the Pope by 
Pipin. Charles conquered Pavia, the capital of the 
Lombard kingdom, sent Desiderius to a Frankish 
monastery, and assumed the title of " King of the 
Franks and the Longobards " (774). 

Two Arab chiefs in Spain, being hard pressed by 
some other prince, asked for Charles's protection, 
offering their allegiance in return. Charles crossed 
the Pyrenees and occupied the country as far as the 
Ebro. On his march back the rear guard of his 
army was attacked and almost annihilated in the 
passes of the Pyrenees. Here fell the hero Roland, 
one of Charles's most faithful knights, celebrated in 
many medieval romances. Later on the territory 
between, the Pyrenees and the Ebro was made a 
Frankish province (Spanish March). The Saracens 
emigrated in a body, and their places were taken by 
Frankish and Visigoth settlers. 

Thassilo, Duke of Bavaria, a. disobedient and un- 
ruly vassal since the days of Pipin, allied himself 
with his eastern neighbors, the Avars, against 
Charles. The Bavarians themselves were indignant 
at this alliance with a heathen nation. Charles suc- 
ceeded in capturing the faithless duke, sent him to 



CHARLES THE GREAT 33 

end his days in a monastery, and incorporated his 
dukedom into the Empire. Thereupon Charles 
marched against the Avars, advancing to the Raab 
and conquering their territory, which became the 
Avaric or East March. By the vigor and success of 
his military exertions Charles had gradually become 
master of more territory in Europe than any ruler 
had controlled since the fall of the Western Empire. 
His kingdom extended from the Atlantic to the 
Elbe and the Raab, from the Ebro and the Tiber as 
far as the North Sea and the Baltic. All the hetero- 
geneous peoples subjugated under his rule, he united 
by the power of his personality and the bond of 
the common Catholic faith. Nothing was wanting 
to his earthly grandeur but the imperial diadem, 
and that was bestowed upon him, about this time, 
in the most flattering manner. 

Charles Crowned as Emperor (800). — Pope Leo 
III had been cruelly maltreated and imprisoned by 
the kinsmen of his predecessor, Hadrian I. Re- 
leased by his friends, he fled to Paderborn to im- 
plore the protection of Charles, who crossed the 
Alps and punished the evildoers, whereupon order 
and peace were re-established. 

On Christmas day (800), when Charles was 
kneeling before the altar of St. Peter's, Pope Leo 
placed a golden crown on the head bowed in humble 
prayer, while the assembled people greeted the 



34 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Frankish King with the joyful exclamation : " Life 
and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus 
crowned by God, the great and pacific Emperor of 
the Romans." By this act the Supreme Head on 
earth of the Catholic Church solemnly conferred on 
Charles the Great the protectorate of the Church and 
the guardianship of public right and order. 

Thus rose a power in Europe, old in name, but 
new in meaning, which under many vicissitudes was 
to be the political centre of Europe for a thousand 
years. The Western Empire, which had been over- 
thrown in 476, was thus, in a new form, revived. 
Pope, Emperor, and people considered this new Em- 
pire the highest secular Protectorate over the 
Church, which conferred on the bearer not any new 
territorial power, but a supremacy of honor and 
dignity over the princes of Christendom. The idea 
of this new Catholic Empire generally recognized 
in the Middle Ages, made it a duty of the Emperor 
to protect Christendom against all enemies, to de- 
fend the Holy See, the Church and her ministers, 
to assist the Church in her legislative work and in 
the conversion of heathen nations by the secular 
arm, to protect the widows and orphans, the wronged 
and the persecuted, and to act as the guardian of 
public justice and the peace-maker among Christian 
princes. 

Charles the Great as Statesman. — Charles was 



CHARLES THE GREAT 35 

not only a great conqueror; he also labored untir- 
ingly every year of his reign, with resolution and 
deliberate purpose for the benefit of all classes in his 
vast dominions. 

In order to facilitate the administration of his 
Empire, he divided it into numerous counties 
(gaus), presided over by counts. Frankish counts 
and other vassals were scattered through all the 
parts of the Empire, though native nobles were by 
no means excluded. These counts exercised civil 
and military jurisdiction in the King's name. The 
borders of the Empire were protected by " marches " 
or marks, i.e., stretches of land studded with for- 
tresses and garrisoned by Frankish troops in* charge 
of " Margraves " (Markgraf), with extensive pow- 
ers. Two royal messengers (missi dominici), a 
bishop and a count, with ample powers from the 
King, were sent out into every part of the kingdom 
four times a year to convene court and generally to 
inspect, examine, reform, report, and thus to bring 
the whole kingdom under the personal superintend- 
ence of Charles. All judicial cases, requiring a de- 
cision in the highest instance, came before the King 
and his immediate assistants through the Count 
Palatine, the highest secular officer of the court. 

Charles the Great understood and acted upon the 
principle of civilized order, that no human law con- 
travening the law of God can bind in conscience, and 



36 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

that the customary claims of individuals or tribes 
must give way to the public interest and the com- 
mon good. He recognized the authority of the 
Church to judge any question relating to the morality 
of human acts. Returning from his coronation, he 
ordered a revision of all existing laws for the pur- 
pose of eliminating any ordinance which might be op- 
posed to the law of God. The Capitularies or en- 
actments of the Frankish diets or mixed councils 
everywhere acknowledge the laws of God and of the 
Church. These diets or general assemblies were of 
a deliberative character, and composed of the bish- 
ops, abbots, counts, margraves, and the prominent 
members of the King's personal following. They 
met twice a year, in May, in connection with the 
Mayfield or general review of the army, and in 
autumn. The 572 Capitularies (so called because 
of their chapters or headings) of the sixty-five diets 
held in the reign of Charles the Great, covered every 
branch of legislation, religious, civil, political, econo- 
mic, penal; they exhibited the manifold relations of 
the Church with Christian princes, the rights and du- 
ties of the feudal system, the encouragement of 
learning, the management of imperial domains, etc., 
going into the most minute details, such as the 
planting of fruit trees, flowers, vegetables and 
medicinal herbs. 

This wonderful sovereign and mighty conqueror 



CHARLES THE GREAT 37 

had nothing more at heart than the promotion of 
Christian education. He himself deeply respected 
the Christian religion, in which he had been brought 
up, observing and practising it with childlike devo- 
tion, Thus he set a shining example to his subjects. 
To strengthen the Church in his dominions, he 
founded bishoprics, churches, monasteries and en- 
dowed them generously. To make the divine serv- 
ice more impressive he summoned singers and organ- 
ists from Italy. 

Charles the Great is the first secular ruler who 
made provisions for the education and instruction 
of his subjects. He called the best scholars of his 
time from Italy, England, and Ireland — among 
them the Anglo-Saxon Alcuin and Peter of Pisa — 
and became himself their most eager pupil. His 
palace school at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) was the 
most renowned educational institution in the West; 
there his own children and those of his court-officials 
studied under his personal supervision. In the great 
episcopal sees and in all the monasteries, schools 
were set up in which rich and poor were educated 
free of expense; even primary schools connected 
with parish-houses owed their existence to his zeal 
for education. From time to time he visited the 
various schools in order to convince himself of the 
progress of the pupils. 

Charles continued St. Boniface's work of unify- 



38 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

ing the different dialects into one national language ; 
he himself composed with Alcuin's aid a German 
grammar. Under his fostering care numerous 
copies of Holy Writ, Roman and Greek classical 
authors, the old heroic epics of the Franks and other 
German tribes, biographies, chronicles, and works of 
secular history were collected and copied, and new 
works written and multiplied by the monks. The 
long list of learned men of the period succeeding 
Charles's death was chiefly the fruit of these new 
schools. 

But Charles the Great had not only the intellectual 
and spiritual welfare of his subjects constantly in 
view, he was also intent upon bettering their econo- 
mic condition. In order to promote agriculture, he 
caused model farms to be established in his royal 
domains, where the peasants might learn how to 
cultivate field and garden in the most economic and 
profitable manner and how to breed, and care for, 
their cattle. 

Charles was a great builder. The splendid cathe- 
dral of Aix-la-Chapelle, designed by himself and 
adorned with columns and marbles from Rome and 
Ravenna, the three royal palaces at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
Nimeguen, and Engelheim, the magnificent Rhine 
bridge at Mayence testify to his interest in building 
and engineering. 

Charles, as a Frank, was purely Teutonic, a thor- 



CHARLES THE GREAT 39 

ough Austrasian in blood, ideas, and tastes. His 
residences were situated, and all his Mayfields held, 
as far as we know, in the Austrasian part of Frank- 
land. France in the modern sense of the word did 
not yet exist. Francia was then a small district 
around Paris. 

The great king died at Aix-la-Chapelle, his favor- 
ite residence, after receiving the last sacraments, 
a. d. 814. His last words were: " Lord, into Thy 
hands I commend my spirit ! " 

Charles is the most distinguished of all the 
Carolingians. He is renowned for his brilliant 
deeds on the battle-field as well as his solicitude for 
the welfare of his people. History has, therefore, 
given him the surname " the Great." His work 
was not lost in the anarchy that followed; his reign 
laid the foundations, hidden for a time by ruins but 
not destroyed, whereon men continued for many 
centuries to build. 



VIII 

THE CENTURY AFTER CHARLES THE GREAT 

Charles the Great was succeeded by his son Lewis 
the Pious, who had earned his title by the singularly 
virtuous life he led. By the Treaty . of Verdun 
(843), his sons divided the Frankish Kingdom into 
three parts. Lothaire, the first-born, was recog- 
nized as Emperor and obtained a long strip of land 
reaching from Friesland to Italy and Provence. 
The inhabitants were partly of German, partly of 
Romance nationality, in about equal proportion. 
The purely German territory to the east of this 
kingdom was assigned to Ludwig the German, the 
lands of the Romanizing West to Charles the Bald. 

The Kingdom of Lothaire soon came to be called 
Lotharingia or Lorraine, and retained the character 
of a border-land. The Treaty of Verdun traced the 
broad lines of the future Kingdoms of Germany, 
France, and Italy; its consequences endure to the 
present day. 

Ludwig the German laid the foundations of Ger- 
many as a national Kingdom. During his long 

reign (840-876) Saxons and Franconians, Bavar- 

40 



THE CENTURY AFTER 41 

ians and Alamanni or Suabians, as they began to 
be called, learned to regard themselves as a nation 
apart, not merely as provinces of the Frankish Em- 
pire. 

Ludwig's successors were mostly weak rulers. In 
their reigns the Northmen from Denmark and Nor- 
way and the Hungarians harassed the country. 
The countries thus attacked were thrown upon their 
own resources and chose a capable leader, called 
" duke," who remained their duke also after the 
dissolution of the army and soon assumed all the 
governmental rights till then exercised solely by the 
King. Thus the royal power gradually passed to 
the dukes, and the kingdom was dissolved into five 
dukedoms: Saxony, Franconia, Bavaria, Alaman- 
nia or Suabia, and Lorraine. 



IX 

HENRY I 

In the year 911 the last Carolingian in Germany, 
Lewis the Child, passed away. After his death the 
Saxons and the Franks offered the crown to Otto 
the Illustrious, Duke of Saxony, who on account of 
his advanced age declined, but drew their choice upon 
Conrad of Franconia. Since that time Germany re- 
mained an elective kingdom up to the year 1806, 

Conrad's attempts to strengthen the unity of the 
Kingdom by moderating the power of the national 
dukes, involved him in a weary succession of feudal 
wars with his unruly vassals. Worn out by cares 
and wounded in his last campaign in Bavaria, he 
nobly followed the example of Otto the Illustrious, 
and with his dying breath recommended to the 
princes his enemy, Henry of Saxony, as the worthi- 
est to succeed him, thus setting a beautiful example 
of generosity and patriotism. 

Henry, surnamed the Fowler, on account of his 

fondness for hunting, was chosen by the Saxons and 

Franks, after the latter had adopted him as a Frank. 

With him begins the rule of the Saxon House. 

42 



HENRY I 43 

The first important achievement of the new King 
was the restoration of the unity of the kingdom. 
The hostile dukes of Bavaria and Suabia he won 
over by his prudence and moderation. Even Lor- 
raine returned to her allegiance. Thus he reunited 
the five great duchies with the kingdom, and be- 
came, in truth, the founder of the German Em- 
pire. 

Henry freed Germany from the attacks of the 
neighboring tribes, especially of the Hungarians, 
whose only delight was in pillage and destruction. 
In 924 they had invaded Saxony in great numbers. 
At that time Henry was not able to oppose them 
effectively ; the Germans, however, succeeded in cap- 
turing one of the enemy's chiefs. The Hungarians 
were ready to ransom their chief with a large amount 
of money, but Henry, to gain time, demanded a 
nine years' truce, in return for which he promised 
to set free the captive and to pay a tribute. He 
now built castles and strongholds along the exposed 
frontiers of Saxony and Thuringia. He ordered 
assemblies, markets, and public gatherings to be 
held within the walls of towns and fortified 
boroughs. Thus arose Ouedlinburg, Merseburg, 
Hersfeld, Goslar, Nordhausen, Meissen, and other 
towns. These fortified places received garrisons. 
Every ninth farmer had to live within the walls of 
a new town and build houses to serve as a refuge 



44 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

for his comrades in case of an invasion, whilst those 
remaining had to till his farm. 

Henry formed a standing army, " the Merseburg 
Troop" of freebooters, who had forfeited their 
lives, gave them land and arms, and taught them to 
defend instead of harassing their country. He 
trained the newly organized army in successful ex- 
peditions against the Wends and other northern 
Slavs. By his warfare with Slavs and Danes, and 
by establishing German settlements in the midst of 
the border nations, he laid the foundation of the 
great ring of Marches or Marks, whose organization 
was completed by his son Otto the Great. One of 
these Marks, the Northmark, forms the beginning of 
the Prussian State. 

The truce with the Hungarians having expired 
in 933, they again appeared in formidable strength. 
Henry quickly collected his army and, near Merse- 
burg, defeated his country's worst foes to such good 
purpose that the realm for a long time enjoyed peace 
and security on the eastern frontiers. 

Before his death Henry summoned the princes 
of his kingdom and recommended his son Otto as 
the future king; after careful deliberation they all 
declared themselves for Otto. Henry died in 936 
and was buried in Quedlinburg. 



X 

OTTO I, THE GREAT 

After Henry's death, the Saxons and the Franks, 
true to their promise, elected Otto king. Not satis- 
fied with being chosen by the chief tribes only, he 
wished to be solemnly acknowledged by the entire 
Empire. All the dukes, counts, and nobles were, 
therefore, summoned to Aix-la-Chapelle to do hom- 
age to the new ruler. They placed him on the 
marble throne of Charles the Great and swore al- 
legiance forever and assistance against all foes. 
The Archbishop of Mayence then anointed and 
crowned him. After the religious ceremonies were 
over, a brilliant banquet was held in the royal palace, 
at which the bishops and nobles were present. At 
table and at court the dukes waited upon the King, 
one as chamberlain, one as carver, one as cup-bearer, 
and one as master of the horse. The chamberlain 
had charge of the royal chambers and arranged the 
entire feast; the carver prepared the royal banquet; 
the cup-bearer provided the wines and beverages, 
and the master of the horse had charge of the 
royal entourage and stables. At the coronation of 

45 



46 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Otto the dukes acted in this capacity for the first 
time. These services of honor were considered a 
sure sign that they acknowledged the crowned one 
as their King and that they desired only to be the 
first of his servants. 

Henry I had treated the great dukes like inde- 
pendent princes. Otto, however, following the ex- 
ample of Charles the Great, treated them as his 
subjects. When he demanded obedience, several of 
the dukes revolted against him. Even his own 
brother, Henry, joined the ranks of the rebels. 
Henry claimed the royal crown for himself, since 
he was born when his father was king, Otto, on the 
contrary, when his father was still duke of Saxony. 
Otto defeated the rebels and intrusted their duchies 
to faithful men. To Henry, who finally humbled 
himself, he gave Bavaria. 

The death of St. Edith, the sister of TEthelstan 
of England, the first wife of Otto I, wrought a 
marked change in his character. His piety grew 
more earnest, and he began to take a personal 
part in the religious revival which marks his 
reign. St. Bruno, his younger brother, hereto- 
fore his chancellor, became Archbishop of Cologne, 
with ducal powers over Lorraine. St. Ulric graced 
the see of Augsburg, St. Conrad that of Con- 
stance. Learned Irish monks and bishops, driven 
by the Northmen from the Green Isle, con- 



OTTO I, THE GREAT 47 

tributed to the revival of the strict observance 
in the German monasteries inaugurated by Arch- 
bishop Bruno. At the court of Otto rose a 
school similar to the Palace School of Charles the 
Great. Over 100 new classical manuscripts were 
imported from Italy. Ecclesiastical learning flour- 
ished in the monastic schools of St. Gall, along the 
Rhine, and in Lorraine. A new literature sprang 
up, in which German peculiarities were blended with 
classical forms. The monk Widukind of Corvey 
wrote the annals of the Saxons; the abbess Hros- 
witha of Gandersheim composed poems and 
.comedies in Latin. Otto himself learned to read 
Latin. Under the guidance and example of St. 
Bruno, a new generation of prelates arose, eager for 
the abolition of abuses, for education at home, and 
for missionary undertakings among the heathens. 
Soon after the death of Henry I, the Wends had 
risen, in order to throw off the hated German yoke. 
Otto defeated the Wends; but he knew full well 
that this was not sufficient for him to count on a 
lasting peace, which was possible only if the Wends 
should be converted to Christianity. Otto did as 
Charles the Great had done with the Saxons long be- 
fore him, and established in the conquered lands 
bishoprics, as Havelberg, Brandenburg, Merseburg, 
Meissen, and Magdeburg. The Danes were also 
vanquished and led into the fold of Christianity. 



48 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

In 955 the Hungarians, one hundred thousand 
strong, again invaded Germany and pitched their 
camp on the Lechfeld near Augsburg. St. Ulric 
heroically defended his episcopal city. Otto with 
all the forces of the kingdom completely routed 
the enemy, and the defeated Magyars fled in wild 
disorder to Hungary, never to return. Gradually 
they settled down to till the soil and defend their 
homes and became accessible to the teachings of the 
gospel. 

Otto had secured his throne internally and against 
all comers. His was the royal authority of Charles 
the Great, and it was now the time for him to re- 
ceive the crown. At that time Berengar, King of 
Italy, defied Pope John XII in his own territory. 
Urged by the Pope, Otto crossed the Alps. At his 
approach the army of Berengar melted away; the 
cities willingly opened their gates and Otto I re- 
ceived the crown of Lombardy at Milan. At Rome 
he was welcomed with great honors, and received 
the imperial crown from John XII. By his corona- 
tion oath he promised to protect the Church and her 
head, to issue no orders concerning the Holy See 
and the people of Rome without the advice of the 
Pope, to restore to the Holy See whatever of the 
Patrimony of St. Peter should come into his posses- 
sion, and to bind his future representatives in Italy 
to protect the person and honor of the Pope and the 



OTTO I, THE GREAT 49 

property of the Church. The sovereignty of the 
Holy See in the States of the Church was formally 
recognized by Otto the Great. John XII and the 
Romans swore never to aid the enemies of the Em- 
peror, especially Berengar. 

Thus the Roman Empire was restored 161 years 
after the coronation of Charles the Great, and in 
course of time obtained the name of the "Holy 
Roman Empire of the German Nation" " Holy " 
because its principal aim was the protection of the 
Holy See and Catholic Christendom ; " Roman Em- 
pire," as a substitute for the extinct Empire of the 
West; of the " German Nation," not necessarily that 
the Emperor should belong to the German nation, 
but because the German princes had the right of 
electing the candidate and presenting him to the Pope 
for imperial coronation. 

With contentment Otto could view his life work. 
He had brought the countries between the Elbe and 
the Weichsel under his dominion and under Chris- 
tian influence; in an age of anarchy he had made 
Germany the leading power of Europe ; the leading 
German chiefs paid homage to him, and, as Roman 
Emperor, his was the highest temporal authority in 
Christendom. He died at Memleben, where also 
his father had died, and was buried in the new 
cathedral of Magdeburg. 

His successors were Otto II (973-983), Ojto HI 



50 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

(983-1002), and Henry II (1002- 1024). The lat- 
ter, also surnamed the Saint, had to fight for the first 
two years of his reign, against rebellious vassals. In 
1004 he marched against Arduin, Margrave of Ivrea, 
who had gathered around him a powerful party 
and received the Italian crown in 1002, just before 
Henry was crowned in Germany. Henry's arrival 
scattered an army of Arduin at Verona, and he was 
crowned King of Italy at Pavia (1005). 

Henry applied himself with great energy to the 
task of pacifying the country, of curbing the lawless- 
ness of the nobles by definite laws and recorded 
customs, of protecting the people against oppression, 
and of strengthening the royal power by a strong 
alliance with the Church. It was through his ef- 
forts that the zealous reformers of the Abbey of 
Cluny obtained a strong position in Germany, who 
were thus enabled to smooth the way for the more 
general reforms effected by the greatest monk of 
Cluny, Pope Gregory VII. Personal favoritism 
was unknown during St. Henry's reign ; not one step 
was taken by the King to increase his family power; 
the Saint was absolutely indifferent as to who should 
succeed him, but as long as he ruled, he looked upon 
his charge as a fief of God, to whom he was re- 
sponsible for his administration. 

In spite of all his efforts for peace he had re- 



OTTO I, THE GREAT 51 

peatedly to draw his sword to suppress feuds or to 
punish rebellious vassals. 

In 10 1 3, Henry II undertook his second expedi- 
tion into Italy, where he protected Pope Benedict 
VIII against schismatical opposition of the Crescen- 
tian party. Crescentius was a descendant of the 
House of Theodora, the one family that above all 
others is responsible for the disorders of Rome in 
those days. Henry conducted the Pope to Rome 
and received with his wife, St. Kunigunda, the im- 
perial crown, A. d. 1 014. It was on this occasion 
that the Pope bestowed upon the Emperor the golden 
ball, the emblem of the globe over which he was 
destined to rule. 

True to his office of Protector of the Church, 
Henry crossed the Alps a third time, in 1022, with 
60,000 men, took Capua, Salerno, and other places 
from the Byzantines, and received the homage of 
Naples. His death, in 1024, put an end to the 
Saxon House. 



XI 

HENRY IV 

Henry II was succeeded by the Franconian Con- 
rad -II, who was connected with the Saxon House 
through Otto Fs daughter Luitgard. By guarantee- 
ing the union of Upper Lorraine, on the death of its 
reigning duke, with Lower Lorraine, he conciliated 
the Duke of Lower Lorraine and won his allegiance, 
thereby frustrating the schemes of some disaffected 
German princes to play that province into the hand 
of Robert I of France. At the death of Rudolph, 
last king of Burgundy, in consequence of treaties 
made with Henry II and Conrad II, that kingdom 
was united with Germany, and the union generally 
recognized in 1034. By the union of Lorraine and 
Burgundy with Germany, the Kingdom of the Mid- 
dle Franks, as by Treaty of Verdun, fell to the Em- 
pire. The Archbishop of Treves became henceforth 
chancellor for Burgundian affairs. By the annexa- 
tion of Burgundy, Cluny came within the boundaries 
of the Empire. 

The chief aim of Conrad's policy was the aggran- 
dizement of his family and the hereditary transmis- 

52 



HENRY IV 53 

sion of the royal power of his house. With this 
view he retained the dukedom of Franconia in his 
own hand, and bestowed Suabia and Bavaria on his 
son Henry, for whom he obtained the homage of the 
vassals and the royal crown, when Henry was still 
a boy. 

Conrad II, while without any thorough educa- 
tion, was pious, generous in building and endowing 
churches, and procured the very best education for 
his son Henry. But he followed the policy of filling 
episcopal sees with political adherents and charging 
high prices for church appointments, thereby en- 
couraging the evil practice of simony. Whilst the 
corruption of the higher clergy, as it prevailed in 
France and Lombardy, had not yet found its way 
into Germany, many abuses, especially violations of 
the law of celibacy, existed among the lower clergy. 

Conrad's son Henry — Henry III, the Black 
(1039-1056) — was the first German king to suc- 
ceed without opposition or rebellion. Unlike his 
father he combined high culture with practical wis- 
dom; he was deeply pious, of an ascetical turn, and 
unrelenting in his resolution to suppress simony. 
Under him the Empire reached the zenith of its 
power. No emperor since Charles the Great was so 
powerful as Henry. He acquired Bohemia as an 
integral part of the Empire, which proved of great 
importance in the later history of Germany. By 



54 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

two campaigns in Hungary and a great victory on 
the Raab (1044), he secured the throne to Peter, 
the nephew of St. Stephen, and Christianity to the 
country. In the same way he restored order and 
religion in Poland and among the Wends. Both 
Peter of Hungary and Casimir of Poland owned 
allegiance to Henry III. 

Henry made two expeditions into Italy. During 
his stay there he restored to the Holy See the so- 
called Patrimony of St. Peter, and added new do- 
nations. He died at Goslar, his favorite city, 1056. 

Henry IV (1056-1075). — Henry III had left 
his six-year-old son Henry under the double protec- 
tion of the Empress-mother, Agnes, and St. Anno, 
Archbishop of Cologne. Dissatisfied with the weak 
regency of Agnes, the princes separated Henry from 
her and placed him under Anno's guardianship. 
Agnes retired to Rome (1064) where she led a 
pious life under the direction of St. Peter Damian, 
Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. To comply with the 
wishes of the princes, Anno shared the administra- 
tion of the kingdom and the education of the prince 
with Adalbert, Archbishop of Bremen, a powerful 
churchman of great ability but still greater ambition. 
During Anno's absence in Italy, Adalbert gained 
complete ascendency over the prince and indulged 
him in his evil tastes. Bad company did the rest 
in corrupting Henry's character. He remained 



HENRY IV 55 

throughout his long reign headstrong, irresolute, 
profligate, and utterly deficient in self-control. 
Henry was declared of age at fifteen, in 1065, anc ^ 
Adalbert, now the first man in the kingdom, inau- 
gurated an administration of extravagance and ex- 
tortion. All the later efforts of Anno to bring 
Henry to his senses failed. 

In 1072 began the personal government of Henry 
IV. He was already hated and despised. The un- 
worthy treatment of his wife, Bertha of Susa, dis- 
gusted the princes. His court at Goslar was the 
seat of the grossest license, of open simony, a veri- 
table market of bishoprics and abbeys. Government 
degenerated into arbitrary rule. Otto of Nord- 
heim, Duke of Bavaria, was falsely accused of high 
treason, and his possessions devastated by the King. 
Magnus, Duke of Saxony, who received the fugitive 
Otto, was thrown into prison. The princes kept 
aloof from the King. The Saxons resented the bur- 
dens which the maintenance of the royal court at 
Goslar imposed on them. The imprisonment of the 
duke increased their excitement. Henry built 
strong castles on every hill-top of Saxony and Thur- 
ingia, and the lawless garrisons plundered and out- 
raged the peasantry. These measures roused a re- 
bellion such as the Empire had never seen before. 

Long before Henry IV, the custom had been in- 
troduced in Germany, Lombardy, and France, of 



56 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

putting the newly elected bishops and abbots in pos- 
session of royal or imperial fiefs, such as large es- 
tates, castles, towns, and counties, by giving them 
the pastoral ring and staff, the emblems of church 
jurisdiction. As this ceremony, called investiture, 
seemed to imply the bestowal of spiritual jurisdic- 
tion by temporal princes, it was, after due considera- 
tion, justly considered an encroachment on the 
rights of the Church. Thus the true meaning of 
investiture — transfer of fiefs and regalia — was 
perverted ; investiture became a transfer of the 
church, of its property, of the pastoral care and 
jurisdiction, — everything in fine save the consecra- 
tion. Under bad emperors or kings it opened the 
door to ambition, bribery, an indecent scramble for 
office, and the pest of simony. 

Never was the traffic in benefices carried on more 
flagrantly than in the days of Henry IV. Ambi- 
tious churchmen offered enormous sums to obtain 
a bishopric or abbey. In order to reimburse them- 
selves they later on sold the smaller benefices to the 
lower clergy. Naturally, this sinful traffic filled 
higher and lower offices with unworthy men, who, 
lost to the sense of their vocation, fell into sins of 
incontinence (concubinage). Thus a large number 
of the clergy not only defied a law which was bind- 
ing in the Latin Church since the fifth century, but 
many defended these abuses as lawful customs. 



HENRY IV '57 

The natural tendency of lay-investiture was to break 
up the unity and catholicity of the Church by na- 
tionalizing it in the different countries. The priest- 
hood was in danger of becoming a caste holding 
benefices on a secular, and, under the influence of 
clerical marriages, on hereditary tenure. 

That the supremacy of the law of the Church, the 
superiority of the spiritual over the temporal order, 
the unity and catholicity, the freedom and the holi- 
ness of the Church of Christ were vindicated among 
the new Teutonic nations, was under God's provi- 
dence the work of the saintly and learned Pope 
Gregory VII. His pontificate was the turning point 
of the Middle Ages. 

Gregory . zealously and vigorously inveighed 
against the scandalous traffic in ecclesiastical digni- 
ties carried on by Henry IV. But his entreaties and 
expostulations were disregarded; and the Emperor, 
instead of amending his conduct, called the German 
bishops and abbots to a sham synod at Worms. 
Nearly all of them appeared and signed a document 
pronouncing the deposition of Gregory VII. There 
were a number of simonist and excommunicated 
bishops who really intended the object set out in the 
document. But the majority were intimidated. 
For shortly afterwards they sent letters to Gregory 
confessing their guilt and asking for penances, but 
pleading fear of death in ' extenuation. From 



58 A SHORT "HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Worms a most insulting letter was addressed by 
" Henry, king not by usurpation, but by God's grace, 
to Hildebrand, henceforth no Pope but false 
monk." A simonist clerk laid the missive before 
the Lenten synod assembled at the Vatican. In the 
midst of the tumult which arose Gregory preserved 
an imperturbable calm, protected the messenger 
against harsh usage, and prorogued the meeting. 
The next day, in the presence of the Empress- 
mother Agnes, and with the full approval of the no 
Fathers of the Council, he passed sentence of ex- 
communication upon Henry, and for the time being 
released all Christians from the oath of fealty 
which they had taken to him, according to the laws 
then prevailing in Church and State. 

At the news of the sentence the princes in great 
number and a majority of the bishops met in diet 
at Tribur to elect a new king. It was owing to the 
instructions which the papal legates had received 
from Gregory VII, that an election was prevented 
and the crown preserved to Henry. An agreement 
was reached after long and earnest deliberations, by 
which the final decision was left in the hands of the 
Pope, who was to hear both parties next Candlemas 
at Augsburg. Henry perceived the gathering 
storm and saw no means of averting it but by seek- 
ing reconciliation with the Church. He, therefore, 
petitioned the Pope to receive him in Italy and ab- 



HENRY IV 59 

solve him from the ban, promising full satisfaction. 
But Gregory answered him again and again that he 
was bound to stand by his promise to the German 
princes. Thereupon Henry resolved to obtain abso- 
lution at any cost. Late in December, 1076, he 
departed for Italy. Gregory had left Rome and 
advanced as far as Canossa, a castle of Lombardy, 
on his way to Germany. Here Henry appeared 
with a few followers, and performed his celebrated 
penance of three days, standing in the garb of a 
penitent in the inner court of the castle, promising 
satisfaction and imploring the grace of absolution. 
Gregory being under pledges to the German princes 
was loath to receive Henry in private and to decide 
the cause of one accused in the absence of his ac- 
cusers. But the humility of the King and the en- 
treaties of spiritual and temporal dignitaries who had 
flocked to Canossa, induced him to readmit the 
penitent King into the communion of the Church. 
Henry promised under oath to abide by the stipula- 
tions of Tribur, and to meet the Pope and the princes 
at Augsburg. Gregory then wrote to the German 
princes what had happened at Canossa, and that 
Henry was still bound and willing to answer their 
charges at Augsburg. 

But the repentance of Henry was short-lived. 
Soon he again assumed the attitude of open hostility 
against the Pope and occupied the passes of the Alps 



60 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

to prevent Gregory's journey to Augsburg. Hear- 
ing of Henry's double breach of plighted faith, the 
German princes, chiefly the Saxons and Suabians, 
met in diet at Forchheim, and elected Rudolph of 
Suabia King. Still, Henry remained master of the 
Empire, his rival having perished in a bloody battle 
on the Elster in Saxony, after three years of dis- 
puted succession. 

Elated with success, Henry made four attempts 
to obtain possession of Rome. In 1084, with the 
help of traitors bribed by money and promises to 
betray the Pope, he succeeded in occupying a part 
of the city. Wibert, the excommunicated Bishop of 
Ravenna, who had been chosen Pope, a few years 
before, by a powerful schismatical party, under the 
name of Clement III, was enthroned by two ex- 
communicated bishops, and in his turn crowned 
Henry Emperor. But their success was of short 
duration. Gregory, who had meanwhile defended 
himself in the Castle of St. Angelo, appealed to 
Robert Wiscard, the valiant leader of the Normans, 
for aid. Robert hastened to Rome and compelled 
the Emperor to retire with his anti-pope. The law- 
ful Pontiff was thus left master of the city; but, as 
party strife rendered it unsafe for him to remain 
there, he withdrew to Salerno, where he became dan- 
gerously ill. There, on May 25, 1085, Gregory 
VII, the greatest Pope of the Middle Ages, the 



HENRY IV 61 

grandest figure in history, died with the memorable 
words on his lips : " I have loved justice and hated 
iniquity, therefore I die in exile." 

Henry's later years were darkened by disgrace- 
ful revelations of his private life and by revolts of 
his sons. He was even forced to abdicate in 1105. 
The dethroned monarch retired to Liege, where he 
died shortly after. He had time to receive the last 
sacraments, having despatched a conciliatory letter 
to Pope Paschal II, 1106. 



XII 

THE FIRST CRUSADE 

Since the days of the Redeemer pious Christians 
had made pilgrimages to Palestine, in order to visit 
the places where Christ had lived, taught, and suf- 
fered. When Constantine the Great and his mother, 
St. Helena, built a magnificent church over the Holy 
Sepulchre at Jerusalem, the number of pious pil- 
grims coming from the four parts of the compass 
increased greatly. In 1072, the Turks,. a barbarous 
people from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, 
captured Palestine. Notwithstanding the hardships 
of the journey and the sufferings they had to en- 
dure at the hands of the Mohammedans, people of 
all classes, rich and poor, barons, counts, and 
princes, undertook the pilgrimage. The conversion 
of Hungary opened a safe highway across Europe, 
and the pilgrims found a defender and a friend 
in St. Stephen, King of Hungary. Archbishops, 
bishops, and other dignitaries of the Empire, accom- 
panied by thousands of pilgrims, journeyed to the 
Holy Places. The sufferings of the faithful in- 
creased from year to year. The customary pilgrim's 

62 



THE FIRST CRUSADE 63 

tax was replaced by a system of extortion and rob- 
bery. Native Christians were despoiled of their 
property and reduced to extreme misery. The pil- 
grims saw the holiest mysteries of their faith dese- 
crated by the infidels, the Patriarch of Jerusalem 
was dragged by his hair along the pavement and 
thrown into a dungeon. By hundreds and thou- 
sands, pilgrims went to the Holy Land, and returned 
by tens and units, to tell of the miseries which they 
had witnessed in the East. Pope Gregory VII had 
the intention of proceeding to Palestine at the head 
of a Christian army. His manifestoes went forth 
to the princes of Europe, many of whom were gained 
for the undertaking. But the contest which broke 
out about, lay-investitures prevented the execu- 
tion of the great design. 

The sentiments of anger and shame at the in- 
dignities suffered by the Christians in the East found 
at last telling expression in the eloquent speeches of 
Peter the Hermit. Peter, a nobleman of Amiens, 
had chosen the life of a hermit in Picardy and had 
made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Returning in 
1093, ne preached the cross with astonishing success 
in Italy, Germany, and France. A more powerful 
man, Pope Urban II, gave his whole support to the 
enterprise. In a great Council held on the Plains 
of Piacenza, attended by 4,000 of the clergy and 
30,000 laymen, he addressed his first appeal to the 



64 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

warriors of the West. But it was in the Council 
of Clermont that the glowing address of Urban II 
was greeted with the universal shout : " God wills 
it! God wills it!" Many thousands resolved 
forthwith to do battle for the recovery of the Holy 
Sepulchre. Returned to their sees, the bishops 
preached the Crusade, and a universal movement 
began, comprehending in the ranks of Crusaders all 
orders of society — no age or condition of life was 
left out. 

In the summer of 1096 the " army of the cross," 
under the leadership of Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke 
of Lower Lorraine, set out with about half a million 
men. The religious fervor of the Crusaders formed 
an excellent basis of discipline. The Germans, un- 
der Godfrey, and part of the French, took their 
way through Hungary and Bulgaria; the rest of the 
French and the Normans of Italy, across the Adri- 
atic and through Epirus. In April, 1079, all had 
arrived at Constantinople, crossing the strait into 
Asia Minor. The sufferings of the Crusaders were 
terrible. The Turks held practically all of Asia 
Minor — devastated the country and burnt the gran- 
aries in order to starve the invading armies, and at 
opportune times they ambushed and cut off foraging 
parties. The withering heat, contagious diseases, 
and incredible privations reduced the pious war- 



THE FIRST CRUSADE 65 

riors to dire straits. The toll for a day's journey 
was hundreds of human lives. 

In the third year after the inception only 20,000 
arrived near Jerusalem. The first view of the Holy 
City was the occasion for all the Crusaders to fall 
on their knees, and with sighs and tears of religious 
emotion they kissed the sacred ground. On June 
13, began the regular siege of the city, accompanied 
by the usual sufferings of heat, thirst, and want of 
provisions. July 15, 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon was 
the third pilgrim and the first prince who sprang 
from a movable tower upon the city walls. The 
gates were thrown open, and the army, exasperated 
by the insults which the besieged had heaped upon 
their religion during the siege, were carried away to 
commit acts of excessive cruelty and unspeakable 
carnage, altogether out of keeping with the holiness 
of their cause. The Crusaders then put off their 
armor, and barefoot and clad in white garments, 
went in procession to the Holy Places and to the 
Church of the Sepulchre to thank God with feelings 
of penitence and humility for their success. The 
Crusaders chose their worthiest leader, Godfrey of 
Bouillon, King of Jerusalem. But Godfrey refused 
to wear a crown of gold where Christ had worn a 
crown of thorns, and contented himself with the 
title of Duke and Protector of the Holy Sepulchre. 



66 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

The holy wars greatly increased the influence of 
the authority of the Church in the person of the 
Roman Pontiffs, who .were the authors and guiding 
spirits of these undertakings, considered by the 
Catholic nations a common affair of Christendom. 
The Popes kept alive the religious motives which 
inspired the first Crusaders; they infused a certain 
uniformity of action into these sacred enterprises; 
they placed the families, the property, the countries 
of the Crusaders under the protection of St. Peter, 
and defended them with the authority of the Holy 
See. 

The work of the Crusaders is designated by con- 
temporary writers as opus Dei, the work of God; 
their achievements are gesta Dei, deeds of God; 
they were to fight bravely for the cause of God. 
The Crusader affixed the cross to his shoulder in 
order that he might offer to Christ cross for cross 
and suffering for suffering, and that, by mortifying 
his desires, he might share with Him in the resur- 
rection. In many Crusaders, no doubt, less worthy 
motives mingled with religious enthusiasm or were 
even the mainsprings of their actions; the spirit of 
adventure, worldly ambition, love of gain, luxury 
and vice, are seen side by side with Christian resigna- 
tion, sincerest piety, and heroic virtues. In this 
the Crusades shared the fate of all human undertak- 
ings. Nevertheless, only in an age in which faith in 



THE FIRST CRUSADE 67 

Christ and love of the Redeemer were living, power- 
ful, and generally recognized springs of action, in 
which religious interests counted for the highest, 
were the Crusades possible. They are the grand- 
est movements of the Middle Ages. 

The Crusades established commercial interests in 
the East, thus laying the foundations for great 
opulence in numerous cities. Finally many serfs 
were accorded full personal freedom, for by a brief 
of the Pope, every slave who took part in a Crusade 
was free — and many thousands were enabled thus 
to obtain their liberty. 



XIII 



HENRY V 



Henry ■ V ascended the throne after the treacher- 
ous deposition and death of his father. Whilst he 
exhibited external deference to the Pope, he main- 
tained the claim and practice of investing prelates 
with ring and staff. On the other hand, Paschal II 
in a number of synods upheld the prohibition of lay- 
investiture. But as long as the young King was oc- 
cupied with domestic affairs and wars with Poland, 
Hungary, and Flanders — expeditions which earned 
him little glory — Paschal treated him with indul- 
gence. In i no, Henry appeared with a large army 
in Rome and began to treat with the Pope about his 
imperial coronation. Papal and royal representa- 
tives met and exchanged proposals. Paschal en- 
gaged to oblige the German prelates to hand back all 
fiefs and royalties to the King in return for Henry's 
renunciation of the right of investiture. This treaty 
was vigorously opposed by the German bishops and 
princes. Thereupon the King declared he would not 
renounce the right of investiture. The treaty be- 
ing thus broken, before it was legally published, 

68 



HENRY V 69 

Paschal refused to crown Henry V. The King at 
once ordered his soldiers to surround the Pope and 
his court in the very church of St. Peter, and to make 
them prisoners. Paschal was kept imprisoned for 
sixty-one days. During all this time he resisted the 
appeals of friend and foe to sacrifice the rights of 
the Church. But when menaced with harsher meas- 
ures against the prisoners, with devastation of the 
Roman Church, and a general schism, he finally 
yielded to force. " For the peace and liberty of the 
Church I am forced tu do what I would never have 
done to save my life." Rome opened her gates 
and Henry V was crowned Emperor in St. Peter's, 
mi, the saddest coronation in the history of 
Rome. 

A Roman synod, in the following year, rejected 
the privilege as obtained by force and uncanonical. 
The Council of Vienne excommunicated Henry. 
The ban was repeated by synods held in Jerusalem, 
Greece, Hungary, France, and Germany. 

Having returned to Germany, Henry began a 
policy of persecution. Prelates faithful to the prin- 
ciples of reform were expelled, imperial bishops in- 
vested, the Archbishop-elect of Mayence and many 
princes, suspected of plots, thrown into dungeons, 
the episcopal city of Halberstadt destroyed. These 
measures together with Henry's' harsh rule, the ar- 
bitrary disposition of hereditary fiefs, and the knowl- 



jo A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

edge of his excommunication led to a widespread de- 
fection in Germany. 

In 1 1 1 6, Henry again went to Rome. Since Pas- 
chal II as well as his successor Gelasius II fled before 
him, he had, before his return to Germany, one of 
his partisans, the Spanish bishop Burdinus, elected 
anti-pope by the votes of three schismatical cardi- 
nals. He assumed the name of Gregory VIII, but 
was soon forsaken by his own partisans. 

Meanwhile the civil war between the Catholic and 
the schismatical party in Germany was renewed with 
increased bitterness and varied fortune. In 1121, 
a large Saxon army was standing face to face with 
the forces of Henry, who was besieging Mayence. 
Before it came to a battle both camps, alarmed at the 
consequences of the struggle, agreed to choose twelve 
princes on either side to deliberate on the means of 
arriving at a lasting peace between the Church and 
the State. The Emperor willingly or unwillingly 
accepted the proposal. The preliminaries were set- 
tled at Wurzburg. Ambassadors went to Rome and 
legates arrived in Germany empowered to conclude a 
definite peace. The negotiations resulted at last in 
the Concordat of Worms ( 1 122) . By this the Pope 
agreed that in Germany the election of bishops 
should be held in the presence of the King or his 
representative, without simony or violence, and that 
the bishop-elect should then be invested by the King 



HENRY V 71 

with the sceptre as a symbol of the regalia. The 
Emperor, therefore, retained all his influence in the 
appointment to vacant dioceses, and as secular 
princes the bishops were responsible to him. The 
Concordat safeguarded the essential rights of the 
Church without infringing on the rights of the State. 



XIV 

THE HOHENSTAUFENS FREDERICK I, BARBAROSSA 

In a brilliant assembly of princes, held on both 
sides of the Rhine near Mayence, and in the pres- 
ence of 60,000 knights, Lothar of Supplinburg, the 
most powerful noble in Germany, was chosen Roman 
King. Lothar had been fighting against Henry IV 
and Henry V for the freedom of the Church and the 
Gregorian Reform. Frederick II, Duke of Suabia, 
the grandson of Henry V, expected the election, but 
the princes had lost confidence in the Salian family, 
and feared a renewal of their policy. They also 
wished to insist on the elective character of the 
kingdom. 

Lothar's most dangerous foes were the Hohen- 
staufen princes. The defeated candidate could not 
brook to see Lothar of Supplinburg in power, es- 
pecially since he demanded the restoration of some 
crown domains in the possession of Frederick of 
Suabia. The Hohenstaufen party chose Frederick's 
brother, Conrad, as rival king. Assisted by his son- 
in-law, Henry the Proud, of Bavaria, Lothar re- 
duced many castles of the Staufen party, and cap- 

72 



THE HOHENSTAUFENS 73 

tured their strongholds, Nurnberg and Speyer. St. 
Bernard of Clairvaux brought about a final and sin- 
cere reconciliation in 1135. Lothar showed himself 
a generous victor, and left the Staufens in the pos- 
session of their fiefs. From the Pope he received 
the domains of the Countess Matilda as a fief, and 
thus laid the foundation of the strong position of the 
house of Wei f (Guelph) in Central Europe. On 
his return from his second Italian expedition, Lothar 
died in the Alps of Tyrol (Breitenwang), 1137. 

Lothar was as just, pious, and brave and as gen- 
erous to the poor as he was powerful. Lie was not 
only a friend and patron of the Church, but a ruler 
who made himself respected by foreign princes as 
well as by the magnates of the Empire. Denmark, 
Bohemia, and Poland swore fealty to him ; Hungary 
and Bohemia submitted their controversies to his 
decision. He strengthened Christianity among the 
Slavonic heathens by protecting the apostolic labors 
of St. Otto of Bamberg, the Apostle of the Pomera- 
nians, and St. Norbert of Magdeburg. He es- 
tablished a king's peace in all Germany, such as the 
country had not seen since the days of Henry III. 
His name was long held dear in the memory of the 
people. 

After Lothar's death his son-in-law, Henry the 
Proud, ruler of Saxony and Bavaria, the head of the 
Welfic House, aspired to the succession. But his 



74 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

vast feudal domains, added to his hereditary pos- 
sessions, made him disliked by all who feared a 
strong central power. Accordingly the nobles of 
Suabia and Franconia, in the absence of the Ba- 
varians and Saxons, chose Conrad, the former oppo- 
nent of Lothar, King of the Germans. It was the 
first time that a Welf confronted a Waibling, as the 
dukes of Suabia were called, in a royal election. 
This election, and the demand of Conrad that Henry 
the Proud should give up Saxony, led to a renewal 
of the civil war. Conrad placed Henry under the 
ban of the Empire, conferred Saxony on Albrecht 
the Bear, and soon after gave Bavaria to Leopold of 
Austria. Henry prevailed in Saxony until his death 
in 1 139, and his brother Welf was defeated at 
Weinsberg in 1 140. At Weinsberg there arose for 
the first time the war cry: "Here for the Welf! 
Here for. the Waibling ! " which was to. be repeated 
on so many battlefields ! 

In the reconciliation at Frankfort, 1142, Henry, 
the brother and successor of Leopold of Austria, 
married Gertrude, the widow of Henry the Proud, 
and retained Bavaria. Henry the Lion, the young 
son of Henry the Proud, was acknowledged as duke 
of Saxony, and Albrecht the Bear received the mar- 
gravate of Brandenburg as a fief of the crown. In 
1 147, Conrad and his nephew, Frederick Barbarossa, 
took the cross. After his return from Jerusalem 



THE HOHENSTAUFENS 75 

Conrad III never obtained real power in Germany; 
controversies without settlements, feuds without 
victories, filled the last years of his reign. 

Frederick I, better known by his Italian surname 
Barbarossa (Redbeard), was almost unanimously 
chosen King after Conrad's death. As the Church 
had been the ideal of Gregory VII, the Holy Em- 
pire was the ideal of Barbarossa. It was, however, 
his misfortune that his closest advisers, educated in 
the law school of Bologna, instilled into his mind 
the idea of a State which resembled the despotism of 
the Byzantine Empire rather, than the ideal of St. 
Leo III and Charles the Great. Frederick I looked 
upon the Empire as an universal monarchy, in which 
the absolute powers of the old Roman Emperors 
were granted to him immediately by God alone. He 
was willing enough to undertake the protection of 
the Church, but he insisted that the Pope, the pre- 
lates, and the entire clergy acknowledge his lordship 
over the Church and model their administration ac- 
cording to the dictates of his sovereign will. 

Frederick's Expeditions to Italy. — Under his 
predecessors, the imperial authority in Italy had been 
almost entirely extinguished. The powerful Lom- 
bard cities paid little attention to the imperial orders. 
At the head of these disloyal cities was Milan. Its 
government treated the King's entreaties and threats 
with contempt. In order to restore and strengthen 



76 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

his authority in Italy, Frederick crossed the Alps six 
times. 

On his first expedition he was crowned, at Pavia, 
with the Iron Crown of Italy. Then he hastened 
to Rome to protect the Pope against the rebellious 
Romans, and was crowned Emperor by Adrian IV. 

On his second expedition Frederick was deter- 
mined to humble Milan. The city was put under 
the ban of the Empire, besieged, and forced to sub- 
mit. Soon Milan rose again, and Frederick took 
most terrible revenge. The city was starved by a 
two years' siege into unconditional surrender, its 
walls, towers, and most of the public buildings were 
destroyed. Terror subdued the rest of the Lom- 
bard cities. 

When, later on, protracted disputes arose between 
Frederick and the Pope, the Lombard cities formed 
a powerful league against the Emperor: They re- 
built the destroyed city of Milan, fortified it strongly, 
and gave it the name of Alessandria, in honor of 
Pope Alexander III, the acknowledged protector 
and adviser of the Lombard League. Barbarossa 
arrived in Lombardy, 1174, burnt Susa, took Asti, 
and then besieged Alessandria. The heroic defense 
of the city, and the approach of an army of the 
League forced the Emperor to retreat after an in- 
glorious siege of six months. At Legnano he suf- 
fered a disastrous rout, in which he saved his own 



THE HOHENSTAUFENS j? 

life with difficulty. After this defeat he became re- 
conciled with the Pope. The latter acted as inter- 
mediary to make peace with the Lombard cities. 
At Venice, Frederick I, after being absolved from 
excommunication, met Alexander III under the por- 
tals of St. Mark's. The Emperor, according to cus- 
tom, kissed the feet of the great Pontiff, whom for 
eighteen years he had persecuted, and the Pope 
with tears of joy raised him up and gave him the 
kiss of peace. The terms of the Peace of Venice 
were: The imperial House acknowledges Alexan- 
der III as the lawful successor of St. Peter, guaran- 
tees the regalia of the Holy See, the restitution of all 
church property alienated during the conflict, and 
the restoration of all ecclesiastics who were expelled 
for their loyalty to Alexander III. The Pope prom- 
ises true peace to the Emperor, the imperial House, 
and his vassals, and grants to the Emperor the 
revenues of the Matildan property for fifteen years. 
The Emperor grants a truce of six years to the Lom- 
bard League and a peace of fifteen years to Sicily. 
Minor differences were to be settled by arbitration. 
The Emperor gradually conceived a great veneration 
for the Pontiff and kept the promised peace to the 
end. 

Frederick at Home. — During the Emperor's ab- 
sence feudal disturbances had 'broken out in Ger- 
many. Frederick gradually established a general 






78 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

peace, inflicting the severest punishments on the 
violators of public tranquillity and the vassals en- 
gaged in feudal warfare. Henry the Lion, the pow- 
erful Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, was placed un- 
der the ban of the Empire and deprived of his duke- 
doms. Bavaria was given to Otto of Wittelsbach, 
whose descendants still rule there. Henry was al- 
lowed to retain his inherited possessions of Bruns- 
wick and Luneburg. He became the ancestor of the 
Welfic House, now ruling in England. -' 

At Mayence the Emperor held a brilliant diet. 
The princes and bishops, thousands of knights and 
an immense multitude of people assembled there. 
Minstrels extolled the valor and fidelity of the Ger- 
man heroes. Popular amusements and tournaments 
were held, Frederick himself taking part in the con- 
tests. His two eldest sons also distinguished them- 
selves and were knighted by the Emperor in person. 
Long afterwards this gorgeous imperial feast was 
celebrated in ballads. 

Frederick's Crusade and Death. — Jerusalem hav- 
ing again fallen into the hands of the Turks, Fred- 
erick, in spite of his advanced age, placed himself at 
the head of a crusade (Third Crusade). Accom- 
panied by his son, Frederick of Suabia, he marched 
with 150,000 warriors to the Orient. In Asia 
Minor the aged Emperor scattered an army of 
300,000 Seljuks at Philomelium and gained a second 



THE HOHENSTAUFENS 79 

great victory at Iconium, while Frederick of Suabia 
planted his banner on the walls of the city. Soon 
after, however, the Emperor met his death whilst 
attempting to swim the river Saleph. The army, 
deprived of its experienced leader, became utterly 
discouraged, and broke up into several bands. 
Frederick of Suabia led the larger portion to An- 
tioch, where the mortal remains of the Emperor 
were buried before the altar of St. Peter. 

The German people were not convinced that 
Frederick Barbarossa was really dead. Cherished 
legendary beliefs assigned him to the interior of the 
Kyifh'duser in Thuringia. There the Emperor, 
asleep, sits at a marble table, his head resting upon 
his arm. His beard is grown through the top and 
around the supports of the table. Over the summit 
of the mountain flutter noisome screeching rooks, 
one day to be scattered by an eagle. Frederick Bar- 
barossa then will be awakened, the signal for Ger- 
many's rise and glory. 

Since the restoration of the German Empire 
(1871) William I has been honored and sung as 
Barbarossa reawakened. 

The Hohenstaufens reigned until 1254. Under 
the last of them the beginnings of a national culture 
began to appear. Latin had fallen into disuse, and 
German had become the prevailing written language. 
For the first time Germany felt that she was a na- 



80 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

tion. This soon brought many Germans into oppo- 
sition to the Church. In the conflict between the 
Papacy and the Empire, the former often seemed 
the opponent of nationalism, and bitterness was felt, 
not against the Church, but against its representa- 
tive. The Germans still remained deeply religious, 
as evidenced by the famous mystics. The most valu- 
able result of this strengthening of the national feel- 
ing was the conquest of what is now the eastern part 
of the German Empire. Henry I had sought to at- 
tain this end, but it was not until the thirteenth cen- 
tury that it was accomplished ; largely by the energy 
of the Teutonic Order. The Marks of Brandenburg, 
Pomerania, Prussia, and Silesia were colonized by 
Germans in a manner that challenges admiration, and 
German influence advanced as far as the Gulf of 
Finland. The centers of German civilization in 
these districts were the Premonstratensian and Cis- 
tercian monasteries. This extraordinary success 
was won by Germans in an era when the imperial 
government seemed ready to go to pieces. It was 
the period of the Great Interregnum (1256— 1273), 
during which Germany was without an Emperor. 
These were frightful times, rife with constant strife. 
The princes of the Empire made war on one another 
and the knights were locked in deadly feuds. Club 
law or the law of the strongest, highway robbery 
on a grand scale, general confusion were the char- 



THE HOHENSTAUFENS 81 

acteristics of this unhappy period. To make an end 
to this state of affairs, the prince-electors, in 1273, 
elected Count Rudolph of Habsburg King. 



XV 

THE PAPACY, THE BEACON TOWER OF THE 
NATIONS 

Throughout Latin Christendom the Pope was con- 
sidered the highest defender of right and justice, the 
father of the persecuted, of orphans and widows, 
the acknowledged arbitrator between kings and 
princes. The Decretals or Papal Laws were uni- 
versally accepted as public law. The kings and 
princes, of their own accord, sought the papal con- 
firmation of their laws, treaties, judicial sentences, 
settlements of territorial divisions, wills, donations 
or revocations of the same. 

The Church alone had the power and authority 
to curb the passions of evil princes in the period 
of transition from barbarism to civilization. From 
the dawn of the Middle Ages public penances had 
not only spiritual but also temporal and civil effects. 
The Teutonic nations, from the time of their con- 
version, acknowledged it as a principle that a prince, 
while under public penance, was unfit to rule. 

In course of time public penance was replaced 

by excommunication. The person excommunicated 

82 



THE PAPACY 83 

became an outlaw by the public, laws of his own 
country, unless he was reconciled with the Church 
within a year and a day. The sentence of excom- 
munication pronounced by Pope or Council against 
an emperor or king was a purely ecclesiastical act 
wholly within the sphere of the Church, excluding 
the culprit from the visible membership of the 
Church. It was looked upon as monstrous that a 
prince excluded from the Church should rule over 
a Christian nation. The sentence of excommuni- 
cation, in cases of confirmed obstinacy, could be fol- 
lowed by the further acts of deposition and the ab- 
solution of the subjects from the oath of allegiance, 
— acts which were not necessarily connected with 
excommunication. It was in the interest of the 
sovereigns themselves, and of human society, that 
such a judgment — for in such cases the Popes acted 
as judges, not merely as teachers — was left neither 
to the people, nor to the assembly of the nobles, nor 
to the national bishops, but to the Pope or to an in- 
ternational Council. In the hands of the Pope or 
of the Council this power was a safeguard against 
both despotism and rebellion. 

The oath of allegiance was a promissory oath bind- 
ing under the condition that the King discharged his 
sworn duties to the Church and to the people. 
When the subjects were in danger of being drawn 
into apostasy or schism by a forsworn king, the 



84 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Church, through the sentence of the Pope or a con- 
ciliary decree, absolved the people from further al- 
legiance to him. The right of excommunication and 
the right of absolution from the oath of allegiance 
with all their temporal effects, were universally ac- 
knowledged as part of the public laws of the Middle 
Ages ; the kings themselves confirmed by their dynas- 
tic laws this connection of spiritual censures with 
temporal effects. Excommunicated sovereigns like 
Henry IV and Henry V, might deny the justice of 
the application, but they granted the justice of the 
principle. Frederick II, at a later period, again and 
again solemnly acknowledged the right of the Pope 
to excommunicate him. 

This indirect power of the Popes over the tem- 
poralities of princes did not derive its origin from 
any donation nor from the public laws of their age, 
but from the divine institution of the Primacy. The 
Popes knew that they could not exercise their spir- 
itual authority in all matters of faith and morals 
(direct power) without extending it in certain cases 
to temporal affairs, so far as these involved ques- 
tions of morality, the loss of souls, the presentation 
of spiritual interests, the correction of sinners, in 
one word, so far as they encroached upon religion 
and thus ceased to be purely temporal. The faith 
that was in Gregory VII is typical of the views of 



THE PAPACY 85 

all the great mediaeval Popes. M " Who does not 
know," he wrote to Bishop Hermann of Metz in the 
case of Henry IV, " what our Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ has said in the Gospel : ' Thou art Peter, 
etc. . . . and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth 
shall also be bound in heaven, etc/ . . . Are the 
kings exempted from this rule ? or do they not belong 
to the sheep whom the Son of God committed to St. 
Peter?" 

The great struggle of Gregory VII and his suc- 
cessors was not waged for the material interests 
of the Holy See. Whatever success the Papacy won 
in this line, was of secondary importance. The vic- 
tory of the Papacy was a triumph of conscience over 
brute force, of duty over passion, of right over 
wrong, in one word, the triumph of the supernatural 
and divine independence of the Church over the 
cunning and violence of her enemies. Had the 
secular power won the battle in this contest of prin- 
ciples, the Church of Christ would have lost her 
Charter of Liberty, handed down to her from the 
Cross and sealed with the Savior's blood ; she would 
have been debased from the throne of a Queen to 
the position of a servant, a handmaid, the police 
power of the State, as all churches fared that ever 
separated from the center of unity, the Holy See. 
We owe it to the mighty leaders of this period, that 



86 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Rome remained to the present day the sanctuary of 
spiritual freedom, the bulwark of human dignity, 
and the imperishable beacon tower of Christian truth 
and morality. 



XVI 

KNIGHTHOOD 

Since the ninth century mounted warriors became 
the rule in western Europe. For this reason only 
the rich could give military service, because horse 
and accoutrements were very dear. They were 
known as knights {chevaliers, cavalieri, caballeros) . 

These knights were the best and most skilled war- 
riors and constituted the principal part of every 
armed force. Knighthood was the goal to which 
the ambition of every noble youth aspired. It was 
conferred only on the pious, the gallant, the modest, 
the virtuous, who had gone through a long probation. 

At an early age the youth went into a training 
planned in the minutest detail. Usually at the age 
of twelve the boy was transferred by his parents to 
the castle of a prince or knight with a well-established 
reputation for order and discipline, to serve as page 
and to learn the military arts. With advancing age 
and experience the page was promoted to the position 
of an esquire or squire (escuyer, knappe), in which 
he had to accompany his master to the field as arm- 
bearer, to lead his war horse, to guard his banner 

87 



88 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

or his person, to relieve him when oppressed in the 
shock of ■ battle, and to take charge of his captives. 
When he had proved the quality of his manhood 
he was finally dubbed knight at the age of twenty- 
one. The immediate preparation comprised a 
twenty-four hours' fast, a vigil, or night-watch, 
often before a statue of the Blessed Virgin, confes- 
sion, and holy communion. Thereupon the candi- 
date, being armed by knights or noble ladies, was 
led into church, chapel or hall, and received from his 
king or liege-lord the accolade, or stroke with the 
sword, by which he was knighted. His ideals were 
henceforth to be found in the service of Christ by 
leading a life of chastity and being ready with the 
sword, especially against the infidels who held His 
tomb ; unswerving devotion to the king or liege, and 
fidelity to his chosen lady. This knightly gallantry, 
as long as it was based on the veneration of the 
" Lady of Ladies" and kept within reasonable 
bounds, created at once nobleness of sentiment, 
purity of morals, and elegance of manner. The 
laws of chivalry demanded that a true knight for- 
get his own glory and publish only the lofty deeds 
of his companions in arms. The greatest insult 
that could be offered to a knight was to charge him 
with falsehood. If innocence, in the form of an 
oppressed woman or a helpless orphan, implored 
the aid of a knight, he was bound to respond to the 



KNIGHTHOOD 89 

appeal. Indelible disgrace followed every offense 
against the weak or unarmed. A knight had to show 
courtesy, fair play, and gentleness even to his pris- 
oners. As the education of the people was shaped 
by the example of the higher classes, the generous 
sentiments of chivalry spread by degrees through all 
ranks and mingled with the character of the Euro- 
pean nations. 

In times of peace the knights played and exercised 
the arts of war at so-called tournaments. These 
took place in a large open field surrounded by lists. 
On one of the stands were seated all the princes, 
knights and ladies of the realm. In radiant armor 
the contesting knights would enter the lists and 
charge each other with levelled lances. Unseating 
the opponent or breaking one's lance on his armor 
was enough to secure the victory in the bout. At the 
end the prize was awarded to the most valiant. 
One of the foremost ladies bestowed the helmet or 
sword or golden chain or a similar object upon the 
victor. 

The flower of knight-errantry comprised the re- 
ligious orders of knights, which were founded dur- 
ing the Crusades. The members of these orders 
made the vows of obedience, chastity, and personal 
poverty ; besides, they took upon themselves the duty 
of protecting, and caring for,' the pilgrims in the 
Holy Land, as well as defending the Church against 



90 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

the infidels. There were three great orders: The 
Knights of St. John, the Knights Templars, and the 
Teutonic Knights. After the loss of the Holy Land 
the Teutonic Order undertook the conversion of the 
heathen Prussians. 

In the course of time many knights lost sight of 
the dignity of their calling and lived on robbery and 
plunder. These knights were called robber-knights. 
From their strongholds on rivers and high roads 
they surprised the travelers and plundered the richly 
laden wagons of the merchants, whom they took to 
their dungeons or towers, asking a heavy ransom 
for their release. Of the merchant ships passing 
their fortified places an arbitrary toll was demanded. 
Also the peasant had a great deal to suffer from 
them, for in the frequent feuds among the knights 
themselves, his crops were often ruthlessly destroyed. 
Against these excesses there was no sufficient protec- 
tion ; in their strongholds on the high rocks or castles 
protected by swamps or waters, the knights defied 
all imperial commands. 

In consequence of the invention of gun-powder 
the knights lost their power and gradually disap- 
peared altogether. 



XVII 

BURGHER AND PEASANT IN THE MIDDLE AGES 

The first cities on the Rhine, Moselle, and Danube 
Rivers arose on the site of Roman settlements. 
Other cities grew up around the site of bishoprics, 
royal palaces, and the burghs of Henry I. As a 
defense against the enemy they were also surrounded 
by walls, towers, moats, and embankments; they re- 
sembled fortified burghs — therefore the inhabitants 
were called burghers. 

Little inclined at first to settle in the cities, the 
Germans soon lost this abhorrence since the cities 
gave security against attacks and afforded manifold 
means of livelihood and much social intercourse and 
entertainment. 

The wealth of the cities was founded upon in- 
dustry and commerce, and the citizens strove to pro- 
tect and increase both. Mechanics and tradesmen 
formed unions or guilds. To attain the title of mas- 
ter it was required to fashion a trial or masterpiece 
in the craft. In this manner a thoroughly competent 
set of master mechanics was educated. 

As religion pervaded the whole life of the people 

qi 



92 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

and sanctified all works of charity and usefulness, 
the guilds prescribed in their statutes the practice 
of social charity and religious observances. The 
Catholic guild system of the Middle Ages foresaw, 
and provided against, some of the worst evils of 
modern industrialism. It was a practical realization 
of the Christian idea of property, which is owner- 
ship in the sense of responsible stewardship. It up- 
held the true character of the Christian family. All 
apprentices, journeymen, and servants were treated 
as members of the family. It united employers and 
employed in a society bound together by corporate 
interests, and strong enough at once to control and 
to defend all classes of members instead of arraying 
them in opposite factions. It excluded the grinding 
competition of misery, incompetence, and low-priced 
inferiority. Religion, the active principle and bond 
of union in the guilds, reconciled the conflicting in- 
terests of all classes. In trade disputes resort to 
arbitration by the guild elders was compulsory be- 
fore going into court. The guild regulations which 
made every Sunday and festival a holiday, and every 
Saturday and eve of a festival a half -holiday, and 
restricted the working hours from morning to the 
Angelus, gave all needed rest to the working man, 
and enabled him to execute artistic work which to- 
day we may admire but cannot imitate. Under this 
system, all workers became intelligent " artisans," 



BURGHER AND PEASANT 93 

not " hands " performing the functions of a machine. 
A proletariat or working class of millions that can 
never rise, did not exist, because all individual work- 
ers could aspire to, and reach, a master's degree. 
The chances of rising for the poorest were increased 
by the fact that parents, however lowly or depend- 
ent, had the right to send their children to any school 
or university for free education. The town and 
country guilds had sufficient funds at their disposal 
to furnish loans, by which brethren in distress were 
enabled to tide over difficulties. These funds were 
derived from voluntary subscriptions, entrance fees, 
fines, gifts, legacies, lands and houses, which the 
guilds held and administered. They thus became 
the benefit societies of the period, and obviated pau- 
perism in the Middle Ages. 

The Religious Revolution of the sixteenth century 
crushed the whole system of guilds and replaced it 
by the degrading poor-law system and the evils of 
pauperism as distinguished from honorable poverty. 

A new impetus was given to commerce by the Cru- 
sades, for new wares and merchandise were intro- 
duced. The ships on which the crusaders made 
their voyage to Palestine returned from the Orient 
heavily laden with linen, spices, and other wares. 
And these goods would then be shipped to all cities 
of Europe. Many cities reached a high degree of 
wealth and bought their full freedom ; they acknowl- 



94 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

edged the Emperor alone as their lord, and were 
called free cities. 

At the time when the merchants had much to 
suffer at the hands of the robber-knights, the great 
commercial cities of Liibeck and Hamburg decided 
to defend themselves and entered into an alliance, 
which was called Hansa. Many other commercial 
cities joined them. At the time of its greatest 
strength more than one hundred cities belonged to 
the alliance. Later on, when the State took the care 
for the general safety into its hands, the Hanseatic 
League was gradually dissolved. Only Hamburg, 
Bremen, and Liibeck are left of this league as inde- 
pendent and free cities. 

The peasants were the most sorely pressed class in 
the Middle Ages. Mostly serfs, obliged to till the 
lands of the overlord, they rendered various other 
services to him. By their taking part in the Cru- 
sades, many peasants became free men; others fled 
from the country into the cities, where, in the course 
of time, they became free citizens. Many landed 
proprietors gave freedom to their serfs as an induce- 
ment to stay with them ; however, they were obliged 
to render moderate tributes and certain services to 
their masters. 



XVIII 

RUDOLPH I OF HABSBURG 

Rudolph, elected king at Frankfort, was crowned 
with great pomp at Aix-la-Chapelle. After the 
coronation the princes of the Empire approached 
him, to be invested, according to usage, with their 
fiefs and regalia anew and to receive from his hand 
confirmation of their authority to rule over their 
lands and subjects. The emblem of this sovereignty 
was a sceptre. Having no sceptre at hand, Rudolph 
seized the crucifix before him, saying : " The cross, 
by which the world has been redeemed, surely can 
take the place of a sceptre." 

When still a mere count, Rudolph was known 
for his sincere piety as well as for his warlike spirit 
and great vigor. Following the chase, one day, his 
party came across a priest carrying the Viaticum to 
a dying man over miry roads and torrents. Quickly 
descending from his steed Rudolph insisted upon the 
priest mounting it, the more speedily to reach the 
bedside of the dying man. When the priest re- 
turned the horse the next day, Rudolph would not 
receive it, unwilling to use any horse for the war or 

95 



96 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

chase which had carried the Body and Blood of our 
Lord, and consecrated it to the service of the Church. 
In 1274, Rudolph was acknowledged by Gregory 
X as king of the Romans. The following year he 
promised the Pope, in a personal meeting at Lau- 
sanne, to accept the state of affairs in southern Italy 
as arranged between the Holy See and the House of 
Anjou. Later he renounced all legal rights in the 
Patrimony of St. Peter, and, upon the payment of a 
vast sum of money, granted perpetual- liberty to 
Florence, Bologna, Lucca, and other cities, thus con- 
firming the separation of Germany and Italy. In 
Germany he strengthened the power of the crown as 
well as of his own House. The refusal of King 
Ottokar II of Bohemia, who had greatly extended 
his territory during the Interregnum, to restore the 
annexed domains to the crown and to acknowledge 
Rudolph as king, led to the proclamation of the ban 
of the Empire against the king of Bohemia. Otto- 
kar, defeated in a first expedition, 1276, rose a sec- 
ond time, but lost battle and life on the Marchfield, 
near Vienna, 1278. Rudolph occupied Bohemia and 
Moravia for Wenzel, the minor son of the fallen 
king, and bestowed Austria, Styria, and part of 
Krain, as fiefs of the Empire, on his own sons Ru- 
dolph and Albrecht, thus founding the Austrian 
power of the House of Habsburg. Whilst his arm 
did not reach to the northwestern regions, where the 



RUDOLPH I OF HABSBURG 97 

princes still fought out their own feuds, he was in- 
defatigable in storming castles and hanging robber- 
knights from their walls in Thuringia, on the Middle 
Rhine, and in southern Germany, until he had ef- 
fected a complete pacification of these countries. 



XIX 

MAXIMILIAN I 

The end Rudolph was striving for he was unable 
to attain, viz., the election of his son Albrecht as his 
successor. The growing power of his House was 
causing uneasiness to the prince-electors; for the 
princes who formerly were considered imperial of- 
ficials only, had become independent sovereigns and 
tried to preserve their independence. They were 
opposed to a powerful imperial dynasty and rarely 
allowed the crown to descend from father to son. 
Hence the emperors now following belonged to di- 
vers Houses: Adolph of Nassau (1292— 1298), Al- 
brecht I of Austria (1298-1308), Henry VII of 
Luxemburg (1308-1313), Frederick the Fair of 
Austria (1314-1330) and Ludwig the Bavarian 
(13 14-1347), Charles IV of Bohemia-Luxemburg 
(1347-1378), his son Wenzel (1378-1400), Ru- 
precht of the Rhine (1400-1410) and Wenzel's 
brother Sigmund of Hungary (1410-1437). 

Under Ludwig the Bavarian the old strife be- 
tween the imperial and papal authorities broke out 
again. Pope John XXII asserted that no king 

98 



MAXIMILIAN I 99 

chosen by the electors could exercise authority before 
the Pope had given his approval. The German 
electors, on the other hand, in a meeting at Rense, 
a.d. 1338, declared that according to ancient custom 
a candidate chosen by all the electors, or by a ma- 
jority, stood in no need of papal confirmation to ad- 
minister the property and the rights of the kingdom 
and to bear the title of Roman King. This decree 
became a law of the land and bound the minority in 
future elections to submit to the choice of the ma- 
jority. The contest entered into a new phase, when 
Ludwig, to increase the prestige of his House, dis- 
solved " by the plenitude of imperial power " the 
marriage of Margaret of Carinthia and Tyrol with 
Prince John of Bohemia, and, disregarding the im- 
pediment of consanguinity, married the heiress to 
his son Ludwig of Brandenburg. Europe stood 
aghast at this invasion of the spiritual rights of the 
Church. The marriage exasperated the House of 
Luxemburg and the majority of the German nobles. 
Five of the seven electors, with the consent of Pope 
Clement VI, declared the throne vacant, deposed 
Ludwig because he had brought the realm to the 
brink of destruction, and elected Charles IV, the 
son of King John of Bohemia, 1346, who, after the 
death of Ludwig in 1347, was universally recognized 
as King of the Romans. 

The victory of the Papacy was decisive on the sur- 



ioo A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

face. Charles IV satisfied every demand of the 
papal court. The people gradually returned to their 
wonted obedience. But the authority of the Papacy 
was, nevertheless, injured by the bitterness with 
which John XXII and especially Clement VI had 
carried on the contest. 

The first years of the reign of Charles IV were 
marked by famine, earthquakes, and a terrible pes- 
tilence, called the Black Death, which, arriving in 
Constantinople from Asia, 1347, spread over all 
Europe, and carried away more than one-third of its 
population. After this time of general suffering 
the peaceful reign of Charles IV, for thirty years, 
was marked by the founding of numerous beneficial 
institutions, chiefly for Bohemia, but also for Ger- 
many. The University of Prague, the first in the 
German Empire, was a monument to the zeal of this 
cultured monarch. 

In 1355, Charles IV was crowned emperor by 
two cardinal deputies of the Pope. Upon his re- 
turn to Germany the emperor published in the Diets 
of Niirnberg and Metz (1355-1356) the Golden 
Bull, which was the first attempt to put into writing 
the more important stipulations of the imperial con- 
stitution. Above all the Bull was intended to regu- 
late the election of the king, and defined which 
princes should have the electoral vote. The electoral 
college was to consist of the seven princes who had 



MAXIMILIAN I 101 

officiated at the election of Rudolph of Habsburg: 
the Archbishops of Mayence, Cologne, and Treves; 
the King of Bohemia, cup-bearer; the Duke of Sax- 
ony, marshal ; the Margrave of Brandenburg, cham- 
berlain; and the Count Palatine of the Rhine, sen- 
eschal of the empire. The three spiritual electors 
were chancellors respectively of Germany, Italy, and 
Burgundy. The electors were granted special privi- 
leges; besides royal rights (regalia) and those of 
taxation and coinage, they received the privilegium 
de non evocando, which deprived their subjects of 
the right to appeal to the Emperor. The royal au- 
thority was to find in the electors who were scattered 
throughout the Empire, a support against the many 
petty princes. The Bull is silent in respect to the 
share of the Pope in the election of the King; the 
one chosen by the majority of the electors was to be 
the King. Only the coronation of the Emperor was 
left to the Pope. The Golden Bull remained the 
most important part of the fundamental law of the 
Holy Roman Empire, and it gave to the German con- 
stitution a distinctly federal character. 

About 1370, the city-leagues reached the height 
of their political power, especially the Hansa. Un- 
der Wenzel they suffered a setback, and it was not 
until 1500 that the free cities obtained the right 
of admission to the imperial diet. 

In the fifteenth century the peasants, too, whose 



102 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

advancement had been retarded, established their 
guilds. All these conflicting circumstances were ac- 
companied by such religious disturbances as the 
simultaneous presence of three Popes (since 1409) 
and the teachings of Johann Hus. The Council of 
Constanz (1414— 1418), called at the instigation of 
Sigmund, though it restored the ecclesiastical unity, 
did not satisfy the desire for a " reformation of the 
Church in head and members." The Hussitic Wars 
(1419— 1436) revealed the defects of the imperial 
constitution, especially as to the military system, and 
to the desire for a reformation of the Church was 
added the cry for a reform in the Empire. Unfor- 
tunately, Emperor Albrecht II (1438-1440), a man 
full of vigor and favorably disposed to the Church, 
died before the completion of this work. His suc- 
cessor, Frederick III (1440-1493), neglected the 
affairs of the Empire, which, shaken internally, also 
suffered territorial losses: the Swiss Confederacy 
belonged but nominally to the Empire, in Italy and 
Burgundy its sovereignty had sunk into nothing- 
ness; Schleswig-Holstein, of its own accord, ac- 
knowledged Denmark as its sovereign (1460), the 
Poles annexed West Prussia, and the remnant of the 
Teutonic Order in East Prussia was obliged to rec- 
ognize the suzerainty of the Polish king. Thus 
the Germanizing influences that had been at work 
for centuries in what is now the eastern part of the 



MAXIMILIAN I 103 

German Empire were destroyed.. In the West, at 
the expense of the Empire, the realm of Charles the 
Bold of Burgundy gradually but surely expanded, 
until his early death (1447) ended his ambitions. 
His daughter and heiress, who married Frederick's 
son Maximilian, brought him the greatest part of 
Burgundy, especially the Netherlands, as a dowry. 
By further marriage relations the sovereignty over 
the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary as well as 
the Spanish territories and Naples was acquired. 

Maximilian I ( 1493-15 19) . — When Maximilian 
took the reins of government, the maxim " Might 
makes right " prevailed. He worked earnestly for a 
reform of the lawless and turbulent condition of the 
Empire. The right of private warfare was abol- 
ished and a perpetual peace established in the Diet 
of Worms, 1495. The Empire was divided into 
" circles," or districts, with a view to the better main- 
tenance of law and order. But the indispensable 
means of carrying out these laws, imperial taxation 
and an imperial army, though frequently promised, 
were persistently denied by the territorial princes. 
In 1495 the able counts of Wirtemberg (Wurttem- 
berg) received the Countship of Suabia, which was 
raised to a duchy. Baden grew into a principality 
by degrees. More rapid was the development of 
Hesse, whose sovereigns, under the title of Land- 
graves, soon came into prominence. 



104 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Maximilian deserved well of the people for in- 
troducing the postal service. Up to that time mes- 
sengers on horseback were used to despatch letters 
from one commercial city to the other, besides stage- 
coaches, which conveyed travelers and their baggage. 
Letters to places not enjoying any such postal serv- 
ice, as well as letters to foreign countries, were de- 
livered when an opportunity offered itself or by spe- 
cial couriers. In France, at that time, the postal 
service had been established, and the Count of Thurn 
and Taxis now imitated the institution in the Tyrol. 
Maximilian appointed the count's son, Francis, post- 
master general and first introduced mail service be- 
tween Vienna and Brussels. Gradually the postal 
service was extended and organized. 

One of Maximilian's favorite pastimes was the 
chase. Pursuing a chamois, one day, he climbed a 
steep precipice, called the " Martinswand." Sud- 
denly, after a bold leap, he could go neither for- 
wards nor backwards ; above him the blue sky, below 
the dizzying depth. At his cries for help an im- 
mense multitude of people flocked together at the 
foot of the mountain. No one was able to help him. 
Two days he spent in this precarious position, until 
at last a young peasant boy, after many a dangerous 
leap, led him to safety. 



XX 

THE RENAISSANCE 

The Renaissance ("New Learning"), which 
from Italy spread over the greater part of Western 
Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 
was a revival of classical antiquity in learning, art, 
law, politics, and life. 

The external events which gave rise to the Renais- 
sance were the increasing influx of Greek scholars 
visiting the councils of Pisa, Constance, Basle, and 
Ferrara-Florence. The fall of Constantinople, 
with its dispersion of educated Hellenists, gave a 
fresh impulse to the study of ancient art and litera- 
ture. The importation of numerous Greek manu- 
scripts vastly increased the knowledge of classical 
antiquity, whilst the search for and discovery in 
European libraries of Latin authors unknown be- 
fore, yielded a rich harvest. Greek scholars of 
eminence quickly made the schools of Italy famous 
by their teaching, and attracted students from all 
parts of Europe to Rome, Florence, and Naples, 
and other Italian cities of the new learning. This 
Renaissance of Literature was called Humanism, 

ios 



106 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

and its votaries Humanists, or, more frequently, 
Poets. 

The fathers of the older German Humanism were 
three pupils of Thomas a Kempis, — Rudolf Agri- 
cola, at Heidelberg and Worms (d. 1485), the great- 
est German schoolman of his century; Alexander 
Hegius, and Rudolf von Langen, all of them equally 
distinguished for learning, piety, and purity of mor- 
als. They were the most zealous revivers of classic 
literature on German soil. Though eager for re- 
freshment and revival from the intellectual life of 
the ancients, and desirous of gaining a scientific 
knowledge of that life, their chief aim was to attain 
a fuller understanding of Christianity and the puri- 
fication of morals. This standpoint of theirs was 
by no means a new one. In the first centuries of the 
Christian era, the Fathers of the Church had pur- 
sued and advocated the study of the ancient lan- 
guages for the same reasons. In the schools of the 
Middle Ages also, to the thirteenth century, the 
classics had been diligently read. And now, after 
a long interval of degradation and barbarism, the 
leaders of the German Renaissance were endeavor- 
ing to take up the threads of this former period of 
classic culture. Now that, by the conquest of Con- 
stantinople, so many new treasures had been added 
to the already existing store, while the invention of 
printing greatly facilitated the spread of them, they 



THE RENAISSANCE 107 

strove in every way both to get hold of the new 
knowledge themselves and to disseminate it among 
the people. They remained staunch supporters of 
the Church and never allowed their culture to lead 
them beyond the limit of Catholic teaching and prac- 
tice. 

We find all these characteristics of the older Ger- 
man Humanists strongly accentuated in Rudolf 
Agricola, the actual founder of the school. He 
had made himself a master of all the classical 
scholarship of his day. He was called a second 
Virgil. Even in Italy, where he spent a number of 
years, he was marvelled at for the fluency, correct- 
ness, and purity which he had acquired in the Latin 
language. So little did his classic studies render 
him indifferent to his own language, that he com- 
posed songs in German, which he was wont to sing 
to the accompaniment of the zither. He was a pro- 
found and thorough student of philosophy, and con- 
versant with natural history and medicine. An 
ardent lover of his own country, he strove ever to 
strengthen the German nation in the consciousness 
of its own worth and importance. The contem- 
poraries of Agricola speak with reverence of the 
blamelessness of his life, of his peaceable disposi- 
tion, his modesty, affability, and childlike simplicity. 

Jacob Wimpfeling, " the Educator of Germany," 
won universal renown for his grammatical, rhe- 



108 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

torical, and educational writings, and labors. Dr. 
John Eck, the sturdy opponent of Luther, added to 
his vast classical erudition a profound knowledge of 
theology. Abbot Trithemius founded the Rhenish 
Literary Society, corresponded with all the learned 
men of Europe, and received with generous hospi- 
tality princes, nobles, prelates, and scholars who 
came to consult him or to study in his rich library. 
John of Dalberg, Bishop of Worms and Chancellor 
of the University of Heidelberg, stood at the head 
of a " Literary Sodality " comprising all Germany. 
In Niirnberg and Augsburg, the centres of Hu- 
manism in southern Germany, the patricians Pirk- 
heimer and Peutinger gathered around them the 
elite of learned men. Among the great number of 
nuns and educated women the Niirnberg abbess, 
Charitas Pirkheimer, occupied the foremost rank. 
In these circles was studied, not only classical litera- 
ture, but national poetry, history and antiquities, 
natural sciences, and especially astronomy. At 
Strassburg Sebastian Brandt wrote his " Ship of 
Fools,' ' the greatest German literary work of the 
fifteenth century. To these men and women are 
due the development of the mother tongue and the 
years of intense intellectual activity which preceded 
the Religious Revolution. 

Gradually two distinct schools of Humanism de- 
veloped: the conservative, or Christian, and the 



THE RENAISSANCE 109 

radical, or pagan, Renaissance.- The former cul- 
tivated classical learning and style to the advance- 
ment and support of religion and Christianity; the 
latter adopted not only the style, but the sentiments 
and feelings, and the immorality and crimes of the 
heathen civilization were incorporated into the 
daily life of its votaries. Wanton attacks upon the 
Holy See, the Religious Orders, Catholic doctrines 
and practices, contempt for the learning of the 
Middle Ages and for their own mother tongue, and 
a worse than pagan immorality in their writings, 
characterize the great majority of this younger 
school of " poets." 

Its founder and chief representative was Erasmus 
of Rotterdam. The extent and variety of his 
knowledge in almost every branch of contemporary 
learning, his untiring activity in all directions, his 
consummate mastery and artistic treatment of the 
Latin language, and the variety and richness of his 
style were equaled by few. He brought forth fresh 
editions of the Bible, of the Greek classics and 
Fathers, and original treatises in every branch of 
literature. But whilst he handled with masterly 
skill the weapons of scorn, irony, and malicious 
satire, he was altogether wanting in intellectual 
depth. He traveled through England, Italy, and 
France as a mere book-worm without eye or under- 
standing for national life and character. His un- 



no A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

blushing vanity, his moral versatility which enabled 
him to retain the friendship of More and Fisher 
in England, whilst it made him the idol of the vilest 
poets in Germany, his freedom in the use of 
calumny, his talent for fulsome flattery to obtain 
money and presents, matched only by his malignant 
spite against adversaries, destroyed all proportion 
between his literary achievements and his character. 
The chief followers of his school, who, when not 
fighting the theologians, devoted their energies to 
the composition of vapid verses and lewd poems, 
were Conrad Celtes, Eobanus Hesse, the " mighty 
toper," Crotus Rabianus, Conrad Rufus Mutian, 
the dissolute Ulric of Hutten, the knight-errant of 
Humanism, and a host of minor scribblers. Their 
school curriculum required the reading of the most 
profligate pagan poetry, and thus their young pupils 
lived in a reign of unrestrained license at Erfurt 
and other universities and schools. 



XXI 

THE GREAT INVENTION 

There is no invention or intellectual achievement 
of which the German people have so much reason to 
be proud as that of printing, which has made them, 
as it were, new apostles of Christianity, dissemi- 
nators of all knowledge, human and divine, and bene- 
factors of all mankind. 

Humanism, like all other literary undertakings, 
was powerfully promoted by Johann Gutenberg's 
invention of the printing press and the use of mov- 
able types. 

As early as the year 1507, Jacob Wimpheling 
draws attention to the fact that nothing can give so 
good an idea of the activity and many-sidedness 
of German intellectual life at that period as the 
consideration of the rapid diffusion of the art of 
printing, which not only converted all the towns of 
Germany, great and small, into intellectual work- 
shops, but also, by means of German printers, es- 
tablished itself in the course of a few years in Italy, 
France, Spain, and even in the far North. 

At the end of the fifteenth century, Rome alone 

in 



ii2 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

counted no fewer than one hundred and ninety 
presses and twenty-three German printers; while 
throughout Italy generally there were over a hun- 
dred German printing establishments. It is to a 
German printer of Foligno, Johann Neumeister, 
from Mayence, that Italy owes the first edition of 
Dante's " Divina Commedia," published in 1472. 

The " German art " was established in Budapest 
in 1473, in London in 1477, in Oxford in 1478, in 
Denmark in 1482, in Stockholm in 1483, in Moravia 
in i486, and in Constantinople in 1490. 

" As the apostles of Christianity went forth of 
old,"" says Wimpheling, " so now the disciples of the 
great art go forth from Germany into all lands, and 
their printed books become heralds of the Gospel, 
preachers of truth and wisdom." 

All the nobler minds of the age were anxious 
that this new art should not be regarded merely 
as an instrument for furthering personal profit, 
but as a fresh means of Christian evangelisation, 
so that, above all, good should accrue to the faith, 
and true wisdom and culture be advanced. 

This view of the mission of the new invention 
made the most enlightened among the clergy become 
its most zealous protectors. In very many cases 
printing establishments were attached to monaster- 
ies. But the clergy were not content with giving 
nominal patronage and co-operation to the new art ; 



THT GREAT INVENTION 113 

they also contributed material help by the purchase 
of its productions. Nearly the whole immense book 
supply of the fifteenth century in Germany aimed 
chiefly at satisfying the needs of the clergy, and 
only by their active participation was it possible 
for its influence to spread simultaneously and in 
all directions throughout the entire population. 

The trade in books developed so rapidly that 
towards the close of the century it had covered 
nearly all civilized Europe. Many of the customs 
and technicalities still in use in the trade date from 
that period. Frankfort-on-the-Main was the 
centre of the world's book trade. The dealers met 
together at the annual fairs and festivals, there con- 
cluded business arrangements, made their purchases, 
and did everything to perfect the method of their 
trade. 

Amongst the foremost publishers of the time was 
Franz Birckmann of Cologne, who did more than 
any others to promote the circulation of the intel- 
lectual products of Italy, France, and the Nether- 
lands. With England especially his trade was so 
extensive that Erasmus writes from Canterbury in 
1 5 10: "Birckmann manages all the book traffic 
of this place." 

But the activity in the book trade was not con- 
fined to the large cities only. In the smaller ones, 
also, much stirring life went on in this direction. 



ii4 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

John Rynmann, of Oehringen, for instance, in the 
last decade of the fifteenth century, carried on large 
dealings both with foreign countries and with the 
upper and lower provinces of the Empire. Later 
on this same Rynmann removed to Augsburg, 
where he enlarged his business so as to include all 
branches of learning. Twelve other booksellers be- 
sides himself were established in this city. 

From evidence of this sort we can form some 
idea of the immense extent of the book" trade in 
Germany at the end of the Middle Ages. 

"We Germans," writes Wimpheling in 1507, 
"practically control the whole intellectual market 
of civilized Europe; the books, however, which we 
bring to this market, are for the most part high-class 
works, tending to the honor of God, the salvation 
of souls, and the civilization of the people." 

Highest amongst these works in Germany stood 
the holiest of all printed books, the Bible, During 
this whole century it well-nigh monopolised most 
of the printing presses of the West. The Vulgate 
had gone through nearly one hundred editions be- 
fore the end of the century. Next to the Bible, 
the leading publishers of the day, themselves as a 
rule highly educated men and personal conductors 
of important literary enterprises, turned their at- 
tention to bringing out worthy editions of the 
Fathers of the Church and the old scholastics, as 



THT GREAT INVENTION 115 

also of the works of contemporary philosophers and 
theologians, and they were most particular with 
regard to faultless printing, beautiful type, and 
good paper. 

Many of the publications of the first century after 
the invention of printing have been preserved to this 
day as masterpieces of the typographical art, and 
can no longer be equalled in beauty. 

The extant collections of German writings of the 
fifteenth century make an extremely favorable im- 
pression of the culture of the period, and show how 
universal was the habit of reading among all classes. 

Naturally those books which had the largest sale 
and widest circulation were oftenest produced. 
We can thus judge of the importance attributed by 
contemporaries to particular works, and of the in- 
fluence of such works, by the measure of their re- 
production; and it is no insignificant fact towards 
a right understanding of the times that the Bible 
reached more than one hundred editions (an edition 
usually consisting of one thousand copies), that a 
theological work by Johannes Heynlin, of Speyer, 
reached twenty editions between 1488 and 1500, 
the works of Wimpheling, thirty editions in twenty- 
five years, and the " Imitation of Christ," translated 
into different languages, no fewer than fifty-nine 
editions before the year 1500. There still exist at 
the present day copies of ten different editions of a 



n6 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

collection of German proverbs. An immense num- 
ber of the books printed in the fifteenth century 
have entirely disappeared, having been either de- 
stroyed in the later religious and civil wars or lost 
through neglect. The number preserved, however, 
may be reckoned at over 30,000, many of them 
works of four, br more, folio volumes, a sign and 
the best proof of the intellectual iwork and activity 
of that period. 



XXII 

THE EVE OF THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 

The eve of the Religious Revolution was a time 
replete with new departures, popular unrest, and 
permanent changes. The magnetic needle, prob- 
ably discovered by the Chinese and used in the 
nautical compass since the thirteenth century in the 
East, since the beginning of the fourteenth in the 
West, materially advanced the discovery of new 
lands and routes of travel. Whilst the Gospel was 
carried to peoples unknown before, the stories of 
the returning discoverers stimulated the love of ad- 
venture and the greed of gold. Navigation and 
commerce assumed proportions never dreamt of in 
earlier times. The introduction of gunpowder in 
Europe in the middle of the fourteenth century, and 
the gradual improvement of fire-arms, changed the 
conditions of warfare, led to the formation of stand- 
ing armies, destroyed the knight service and chiv- 
alry, and aided the princes to triumph over the lower 
feudal nobility. The thousands slain in the battles 
of the Middle Ages were multiplied tenfold. The 
postal service rapidly spread the news of the stirring 

117 



n8 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

times, the ideas, good and evil, of the new-learn- 
ing, and the publications of the youthful press from 
country to country. 

The general causes which prepared the way for 
the breach with the Church in the sixteenth century 
may be reduced to the weakening of the bonds of 
Catholic union and faith in the two preceding cen- 
turies. In Germany especially, a slackening of 
morals had gradually pervaded all classes, both of 
the laity and clergy, secular and regular, high and 
low. Whilst piety and love of learning still at- 
tracted the majority of the clergy, making them 
zealous to diffuse religious knowledge by catechetical 
teaching, sermons, instructive publications, and 
educational work in the elementary and middle 
schools, a none too small minority of other church- 
men, banqueting, hunting, warfaring, and high-liv- 
ing prelates and worldly or ignorant clergymen 
scandalously neglected their sacred duties. The 
plurality of benefices, the frequent bestowal of 
ecclesiastical preferments on mere boys or youths 
not yet ordained, the pernicious rule of appointing 
younger sons of noble or princely families to the 
higher and highest posts in the Church, were at the 
root of the evil. The immense wealth of the Church 
— the clergy had and held nearly one-third of the 
realty — and the large payments made by German 
prelates to the Roman court, excited the greed of 



EVE OF RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 119 

the nobles. The many conflicts between bishops 
and cities about questions of jurisdiction and im- 
munities assumed a more bitter character at the end 
of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth cen- 
turies. The city chronicles dwell with preference 
on the scandals connected with the clergy and often 
exaggerate them. Hence the cities were quick in 
joining the revolutionary movement started by 
Luther. Besides, earlier heresies had familiarized 
the people with a number of errors that were soon to 
be preached through one-half of Europe. Hus had 
attacked the hierarchy. John von Wesel, profes- 
sor at the University of Erfurt (d. 1481), denied 
the authority of General Councils, oral tradition, the 
primacy of the Holy See, and other dogmas. Thus 
the way was prepared for a religious upheaval. 

This mixture of good and evil was the more 
threatening to the Church because it was aggravated 
by political, social, and economic abuses. 

Maximilian I had earnestly worked for a reform 
of the lawless and turbulent condition of the Em- 
pire which he had inherited from the weak Freder- 
ick III. The right of private warfare was, indeed, 
abolished and a perpetual public peace established 
at the Diet of Worms, 1495. The Empire was 
divided into " circles " or districts with a view to 
the better maintenance of law and order. But the 
indispensable means of carrying out these laws, 



120 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

imperial taxation and an imperial army, though 
frequently promised, were persistently denied by the 
territorial princes. Thus, on the eve of the 
" Reformation," every description of outrage and 
violence went unpunished, and the Empire became 
a prey to anarchy and confusion. 

In proportion as the princes and cities became 
powerful, the nobility or imperial knighthood fell 
lower and lower into ignorance, poverty, and high- 
way robbery. Under the leadership' of robber 
knights like Franz von Sickingen and the teach- 
ings of Ulrich von Hutten, numbers of highway- 
men with a crest, who possessed little more than a 
castle or keep perched upon a rock and lived with 
their marauding troopers upon the booty of towns- 
folk, merchants, and travelers, were ready at any 
moment to break out into open rebellion. 

The position of the peasants, too, grew much 
worse towards the end of the period, partly through 
their own extravagant living, partly through the 
exactions of the great merchant companies. But 
the chief causes of the wide-spread discontent of 
the peasantry were the new burdens imposed on 
them by the advice of the Roman jurists, the coun- 
sellors and seducers of princes and bishops. 
Agents of anarchy availed themselves of the gen- 
eral unrest of the masses. The poor citizens made 
common cause with the peasants. In all these ris- 



EVE OF RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 121 

ings, however, there was as yet no trace of the ter- 
rible excesses of the Peasants' War, when all the 
divers conspiracies of the lower classes received a 
common watchword in Luther's " Evangelical lib- 
erty." 

But one would be wholly mistaken to assume that 
these abuses had become the rule of the Church. 
Never approving but always seeking the correction 
of them, the Church in no uncertain tones con- 
demned all these abuses. In the advancement of 
the religious spirit of the fifteenth century, many 
■prominent men, including Nicholas of Cusa, Brug- 
man, Geiler of Kaysersberg, the " B ruder vom 
Gemeinsamen Leben," distinguished themselves. 
To correct economic inequalities the Church labored 
for the people by founding " monies pietatis" strove 
to advance Christian charity by encouraging alms- 
giving, founding hospitals, etc. ; advanced the edu- 
cation of the people by a new system of public 
schools and doctrinal instructions from the pulpit. 
These methods of teaching and preaching were new 
to the fifteenth century and speedily attained a re- 
markable degree of development, bearing choice 
fruits of scholarship and holiness. The further we 
pursue our studies of the conditions of those times, 
the more we realize that superstition did not pre- 
vail in the religious life and there was not ignorance 
of theological subjects among the common people, 



122 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

The Church's teaching on justification and in- 
dulgences, and the like, was familiar to all, and 
many made close study of the Holy Scriptures. In 
spite of worldliness and luxurious living, the period 
immediately preceding the Religious Revolution was 
characterized by deeply rooted piety manifesting it- 
self in ways that will remain standards for all times. 
Mysticism, within and without the monastic orders, 
flourished; new devotions, like the Stations of the 
Cross, Devotion to the Holy Eucharist, the Rosary 
and other special Services in honor of Our Lady, 
bore testimony that many were striving for Chris- 
tian perfection. Even where the opposition to 
Rome showed itself most bitter, it was never the in- 
tention of the people to place themselves, outside the 
pale of the Church nor to found a religious insti- 
tution independent of Rome. The step away from 
Rome was reserved for Luther, who opposed the 
authority of the Pope both theoretically and denied 
its teaching in his daily life. 



XXIII 

THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 

The external cause of the Religious Revolution 
of the sixteenth century, commonly called the 
" Reformation," was the publication of indulgences 
under Pope Leo X. The Pope had issued indul- 
gences under the usual conditions of penance and ' 
contrition, to which was added that of contributing, 
according to the means of the donor, towards the 
building of new St. Peter's in Rome. The Arch- 
bishop of Mayence entrusted the publication of these 
indulgences to the Dominican John Tetzel, a worthy 
priest and sound theologian. 

At that time there lived in Wittenberg Martin 
Luther, an Augustinian monk and Professor of 
Divinity at the newly erected university of that 
town. He was an indifferent scholar, but endowed 
with a strong natural eloquence, and a writer who 
handled his native language with singular force 
and popularity, and with no scruples as to the de- 
cencies of life. He thought out a new doctrine, 
the fundamental source of all his errors, which as- 
serted the absolute corruption of human nature, 

123 



124 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

and a merely external justification to be obtained 
by strong faith, i.e., trust in the merits of Christ. 
He thus based his hopes of salvation on a system 
which destroyed the spiritual powers of man, and 
ascribed the whole work of justification to God 
alone, without penance, moral improvement or any 
kind of co-operation save a blind trust on the part 
of man. His further assertion of the uselessness, 
nay sinfulness, of good works, and his denial of free- 
will, were but logical deductions from his funda- 
mental error. 

The preaching of the indulgence by Tetzel in the 
neighborhood of Wittenberg was seized by Luther 
as a welcome opportunity to give a wider publicity 
to his views. Accordingly, on the eve of All Saints, 
15 17, he affixed to the doors of the castle church of 
Wittenberg his famous 95 theses, in which he as- 
sailed not only the abuses really existing in some 
parts of the country, but the doctrine itself of in- 
dulgences, good works, and the spiritual power of 
the Roman Pontiff, and challenged all comers to 
disprove the correctness of his statements. The 
stories of Tetzel's selling indulgences, or attacking 
the reverence due to the Blessed Virgin, or appro- 
priating moneys collected for his own use, are later 
inventions, refuted by Albrecht of Brandenburg, 
the magistrates of Halle, and Luther himself in a 
letter addressed to Tetzel. Luther attacked Tetzel 



THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 125 

because the latter's doctrine clashed with his own 
heretical system. The theses spread rapidly through 
Europe; numerous pamphlets were written for and 
against them. Luther was at once magnified into 
a hero of reform. The princes disliked the ex- 
portation of German money. Many of the clergy 
were displeased with the temporary suspension of 
other indulgences. The common people were cap- 
tivated by Luther's phrases, that " the real treasures 
of the Church were the poor." The Humanists 
were exuberant in their applause of the monk who 
dared single-handed to assail the Pope. Even some 
bishops and prelates were unsound in their views 
on indulgences, the papal power, etc. Very few, 
however, suspected the importance of the move- 
ment. The only partisans, as yet, of Luther's doc- 
trinal system were his fellow professors at Witten- 
berg. Outside of the latter, not one theologian or 
canonist of repute taught that an indulgence could 
remit the guilt of sin. Real penitence, confession, 
and amendment of life were always considered es- 
sential conditions for gaining an indulgence, i.e., a 
remission of temporal punishment due to sin. The 
doctrine that the gaining of an indulgence pre- 
supposed the state of grace, contrition and confes- 
sion, respectively, was not only held at the universi- 
ties, but occurs in the numerous sermons preserved 
from pre-Lutheran times, and was faithfully trans- 



126 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

mitted to the laity who, apart from exceptional 
cases of extreme ignorance, were well instructed in 
regard to this matter. 

The short but incisive refutation of Luther's 
theses by Dr. Eck led to a public disputation between 
the latter and Luther's friend, Carlstadt, in which 
Luther himself took part. It was held in Leipsic, 
in the presence of George, Duke of Saxony, and 
lasted nineteen days. Pressed by his antagonist, 
who was his superior both in learning and temper, 
Luther rejected the epistle of St. James, the primacy 
of the See of St. Peter, and the infallibility of Gen- 
eral Councils, to which he had previously appealed. 
The victory was universally accorded to Eck. 
Luther himself owned his defeat. 

The disputation on the one hand confirmed Duke 
George, the City and University of Leipsic, and 
many other learned Catholics in the old faith, on 
the other hand it exasperated Luther's pride, and 
impelled him to proclaim the Pope as the anti-christ, 
and himself as a true evangelist, commissioned by 
an immediate revelation to preach the new " gospel ' ! 
as the only means of salvation. 

Meanwhile all those who hoped to gain by a re- 
volt against the Church or the State, covetous 
princes and their Roman jurists, the revolutionary 
knights of the Empire, poets and humanists, Bo- 
hemian Hussites, immoral clerics, monks tired of 



THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 127 

their vows, disaffected peasants, however antago- 
nistic their several interests might be, united in sup- 
porting the apostate monk of Wittenberg. Pious 
and serious men, who in the beginning had joined 
the movement, hoping that it might lead to a 
reformation of manners, withdrew from it, when 
they saw it directed not against abuses only, but 
likewise against revealed truths and divine institu- 
tions. Many of the German bishops had not a 
word to say in defense of the Christian revelation 
and the rights of the Church. Under these circum- 
stances Luther, after the disputation of Leipsic, 
began to demolish what was left of the ecclesiastical 
fabric, the doctrine of the Sacraments, the Sacri- 
fice of Mass, the hierarchy, the priesthood, and to 
set up an invisible church with a universal priest- 
hood governed by evangelical liberty. In his in- 
flammatory writings he called upon the Emperor 
and the nobles to secularize the cathedrals for the 
benefit of the younger-born nobles, to tear Ger- 
many from the spiritual jurisdiction of Rome, to 
abolish the feudal supremacy of the Pope over 
Naples, to confiscate the States of the Church, and 
to wash their hands in the blood of the Cardinals 
and the Pope. After mature deliberation, Leo X, 
in July, 1520, issued a bull in which 41 of Luther's 
propositions were condemned, and he himself com- 
manded to retract within sixty days under pain of 



128 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

excommunication. Frederick, Elector of Saxony, 
confirmed in his protectorate of Luther by the ad- 
vice of Erasmus, refused to receive the papal legate 
Aleander and paid no regard to the papal bull, 
whilst Luther published the most scurrilous attacks 
against the Holy See and finally burnt the papal 
bull and a copy of the canon law before the Elster 
gate of Wittenberg, thus openly declaring war 
against the Church and the whole Christian Past, 
December 10, 1520. The excommunication fol- 
lowed January 3, 1521. 

The Diet of Worms. — Maximilian I, always a 
devout and staunch Catholic, died a most edifying 
death in 15 19. The electors cast their votes for 
Charles I of Spain, as Emperor Charles V. Charles 
had inherited the Burgundian lands from his father, 
Philip the Fair, Archduke of Austria (1506), the 
Kingdoms of Spain, Navarre, Naples, with Sicily, 
Sardinia, and Corsica, Oran in Africa, and Spanish 
America, from his grandfather, Ferdinand of 
Aragon (15 16), and the Austrian possessions from 
his other grandfather, Maximilian I. Thus the 
Spanish monarchy became the greatest power of 
Europe for the century. At his coronation in Aix- 
la-Chapelle, 1520, Charles V swore to protect the 
Church and to maintain the rights of the Holy See. 
In a long and eventful reign he, on the whole, fairly 
kept his oath. 



THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 129 

From Aix-la-Chapelle the .Emperor-elect pro- 
ceeded to the famous Diet of Worms, summoned to 
devise means for the restoration of religious peace. 
The princes favorable to Luther demanded a regu- 
lar trial of the ex-friar before the Diet. The papal 
legate Aleander, a churchman of great virtue and 
learning, rightfully objected against this setting 
aside of a sentence already passed by the highest 
competent tribunal. The Emperor took a middle 
course and summoned Luther to the diet under a 
safe-conduct, not to dispute and to be judged, but 
to give an account of his books and prove his readi- 
ness to revoke his errors. 

In a powerful speech of three hours Aleander 
clearly showed the assembled princes that Luther's 
proceedings threatened not only the stability of the 
Church, but the very existence of the Empire and 
the well-being of society. Luther acknowledged 
the books laid before him as his own, but refused 
to retract anything he had written. He would lis- 
ten only to clear texts and arguments from Holy 
Writ. This position was unassailable because 
Luther accepted only his own interpretation as de- 
cisive and rejected books at his pleasure. There- 
upon Charles V issued a decree which placed Luther 
under the ban of the Empire as an obstinate heretic 
and ordered his books to be burnt. The sentence 
was to take effect after the lapse of the twenty-one 



130 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

days which his safe-conduct still allowed him. On 
retiring from Worms, Luther's party was appar- 
ently attacked by armed men in disguise, and 
Luther was conveyed to the Wartburg, a castle 
belonging to Frederick of Saxony. A great out- 
cry at once rose among the friends of Luther, that 
the imperial safe-conduct had been violated, and 
the reformer foully murdered. But it soon leaked 
out that Frederick had arranged the abduction for 
the sake of protecting him against the consequences 
of the ban. Here Luther began the translation of 
the Bible into German, manipulating the text so as 
to fit his own tenets. 

Meanwhile the seed sown by Luther began to 
bear fruit. In Erfurt his adherents sacked or 
burnt over sixty houses of the clergy, tore up legal 
documents, and destroyed whole libraries, 1521. 
At Wittenberg a storm w T as roused by Carlstadt, 
Nicholas Stork and his " prophets of Zwickau," who 
pretended to see visions, rebaptized those who had 
received the sacrament in their childhood, rejected 
Luther's "• gospel "of salvation by faith alone, and 
founded a new Kingdom of God on the basis of 
absolute equality and communism of goods. The 
disturbers, assisted by the students of Wittenberg, 
broke sacred images, destroyed altars and confes- 
sionals, ransacked churches, and declared war 
against all learning, even against the elementary 



THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 131 

schools. Luther hastened from the Wartburg, " to 
rap these visionaries on the snout," drove his oppo- 
nents from Wittenberg, and restored some order. 

The Social Revolution. — The disturbances at 
Erfurt and Wittenberg were but the forerunners 
of social upheavals on a large scale. In the first 
place the knights of the Empire banded together 
in large numbers under Francis of Sickingen and 
Ulric of Hutten " to make an opening for the gos- 
pel "of their friend Luther. This motto covered 
a long harbored plan to restore the power of the 
knights by the overthrow of the spiritual princes. 
This end accomplished, the secular princes were to 
be assailed in their turn. The first object of at- 
tack was the Archbishop of Treves, one of the 
energetic opponents of Luther. With an army of 
5,000 foot and 1,500 horse, Sickingen besieged 
Treves, counting upon a rising within the walls. 
But the citizens proved loyal to their Archbishop, 
and the city held out till some of the neighboring 
princes came to the rescue. Sickingen had to raise 
the siege, and retired to his castles, leaving the ruins 
of burnt churches, monasteries and villages in his 
wake, 1522. 

The following year Sickingen again put an armed 
force in the field and raided, parts of the Palatine 
territory. But a league of Rhenish princes be- 
sieged him in his own castle of Landstuhl. Here 



132 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Sickingen received his mortal wound, and died re- 
conciled with the Church. His castles and those 
of his adherents were broken or burnt out by the 
league. Hutten fled into Switzerland and died 
friendless, a victim of his immoral life, 1523. 

Hardly was the imperial knighthood defeated in 
its leaders, when a new and far greater danger arose 
to society from the lower orders. Preachers with- 
out number, unfrocked priests, and runaway monks 
proclaimed in most violent language the gospel of 
hatred, envy, and rebellion. Poor peasants allied 
themselves with the rabble of the cities and the scat- 
tered followers of Sickingen, formed " Evangelical 
Brotherhoods/' " Christian Unions," and forced the 
better class of farmers and even nobles to join 
them, and the municipalities of infested towns to 
furnish them with arms and ammunition. They 
set up articles of the most revolutionary character, 
which all had to sign who fell into their power. 

The inhuman and sacrilegious character of this 
rebellion is directly traceable to the Lutheran agita- 
tion. Luther had set up the most flagrant example 
of rebellion against God-given authority and exist- 
ing institutions known in history. His pamphlets 
were full of appeals to the worst human passion ; 
burning convents, plundering and slaying priests 
and bishops were declared by him to be acts not only 
pleasing to God, but necessary under pain of damna- 



THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 133 

tion. He heaped calumnies and insults on the 
princes who closed their countries to his gospel, and 
hurled his invectives against the Emperor himself. 
His preachers and adherents, outside of Thuringia, 
were the chief speakers and leaders of the peasants. 
Thirty of the many circulating " Articles " were 
almost literally taken from his German writings; 
one of them declared Luther's enemies to be the 
peasants' enemies. 

The rising began in 1524, near the Lake of Con- 
stance, spread over Suabia, and became general in 
the spring of the following year. It extended to 
Alsace, the countries of the Rhine, the Neckar, and 
the Main, and southward far into Austrian terri- 
tory, involving the countries from the southern 
Alps almost to the Baltic in a general conflagration. 
The sacking of clergy-houses, the looting of 
churches, the breaking of images, and, worse still, 
the most horrible desecrations of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment were everywhere committed by the " Evangeli- 
cal Brotherhoods." The Suabian League, under 
the command of the brave and energetic George 
Truchsess, defeated the peasants wherever it met 
them. Some of the most powerful princes pur- 
posely held back, to allow the peasants time for 
destroying the spiritual principalities, that they 
might afterwards step in and change them into 
secular domains. But finally self-defense forced 



i 3 4 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

them to energetic action. In April, the League in- 
flicted a decisive defeat on the peasants near Ulm. 
Gradually the peasants in the other parts of the 
Empire either surrendered or were crushed. 

More than 1,000 castles and monasteries all over 
Germany lay in ashes. Contemporary writers es- 
timate the number of slain at 130,000 to 150,000. 
Thousands were executed, or blinded, or had their 
hands and ringers chopped off. Hundreds of vil- 
lages were burnt by the avenging troops, the fields 
untilled, the cost of living enormously raised. The 
country was filled with beggared widows and 
orphans. For centuries the peasantry were unable 
to regain the prosperity which they had enjoyed in 
the fifteenth century. 

At the beginning of the outbreak Luther had 
published a pamphlet, in which he blamed the rising 
in language as yielding and conciliatory to the 
peasants as it was violent and insulting to the 
bishops and the Catholic princes. Only when it be- 
came evident that the princes would crush the rebel- 
lion, he savagely turned against the peasants and 
hounded on the princes in their work of blood. 
" Strike," said he to the princes, " strike, slay front 
and rear, nothing is more devilish than sedition. 
There must be no sleep, no patience, no mercy; 
they are the children of the devil." 

The Making of Protestantism. — Protestantism 



THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 135 

in Germany owed its firm establishment chiefly to 
its union with the territorial princes. The rising of 
the imperial knighthood in alliance with, and in the 
name of, the " gospel " had failed. The independ- 
ence of the lower nobility was destroyed. The re- 
volt of the peasants was overthrown and ended in 
the complete enslavement of the lower orders. The 
result of both victories was a great increase of power 
and independence for the territorial lords. The 
Emperor was now the only obstacle in the way of 
the princes to absolute independence. Hence the 
princes saw their interests identified with those of 
the religious rebels, who hated the Catholic Em- 
peror as the official protector of the Church. On the 
other hand, Luther and Melanchthon and their 
friends bitterly felt the general demoralization, the 
breaking up of churches and schools, the abject 
poverty of the new preachers, and the contempt 
of all religion resulting from the Lutheran agita- 
tion. In this pressing necessity, the so-called Re- 
formers threw themselves unconditionally into the 
arms of the territorial princes. Thus it happened 
that the doctrine of passive obedience to the princes 
and of the regulation of all church questions by the 
princes, became the principal dogma of Protestant- 
ism in Germany; in fact, hatred of Rome and sub- 
mission to state or lay authority became the one dis- 
tinctive mark of Protestantism in every country. 



136 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

At the Diet of Speyer, 1529, the Catholic majority 
passed a decree that the Lutheran states were to 
grant toleration to Catholics, but might retain the 
new worship and church government, whilst the 
Edict of Worms should remain binding in the 
Catholic states, and that further innovations should 
be avoided till the assembly of a General Council. 
The Lutheran minority protested against the con- 
ciliatory enactment, and obtained by this act the 
essentially negative name of Protestants. They 
were unwilling either to grant the Catholics a lib- 
erty which they had won for themselves, or to fore- 
go the right which they claimed of continuing 
their war against the Church. 

Causes of the Spread of Protestantism. — It was 
not any higher morality which attracted the different 
classes to the new gospel of the so-called reformers. 
On the contrary, their teaching gave ample scope 
to the inborn passions of human nature. The bold 
rebellion of the leaders and their catchwords of 
" independence of thought," " Christian liberty," 
" universal priesthood," whilst flattering human 
pride, freed their adherents from the yoke of obedi- 
ence. The doctrine of nature's radical corruption, 
and of salvation by faith alone, allowed them to give 
full rein to their lower appetites. The masses were 
systematically deceived by the impassioned agita- 
tion, the popular eloquence, the appeals to their 



THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 137 

prejudices and the later unscrupulous misrepresenta- 
tions of Catholic teaching, carried on by the leaders 
in sermons, pamphlets, libels, and caricatures, in 
which the holiest things were dragged into the mire. 
The comfortable doctrine of the unfreedom of the 
will and the uselessness of good works swept away 
celibacy, monastic vows, fasting, confession, and 
many other duties irksome to human nature. The 
apostasy of kings and princes gave a powerful im- 
pulse to the propagation of heresy. The rulers saw 
at once the temporal advantages accruing to them 
• from the new faith. It opened the door to a whole- 
sale seizure of church property, to the confiscation of 
vast estates, and to the secularization of entire ter- 
ritories belonging to bishops and abbeys. At the 
same time it greatly increased their power over the 
people, since it allowed them supreme jurisdiction 
in all religious matters. In many countries it was 
mere brute force which compelled the subjects to 
adopt the religion of their ruler. 

The Smalkddic War. — In 1530, the Protestant 
princes of Germany, for mutual protection, formed 
the League of Smalkalden, a Protestant town of 
Thuringia. Luther and Melanchthon authorized 
the use of arms for the maintenance of Protestant- 
ism against the " Papists," including the Emperor. 
The Leaguers obliged themselves to stand by each 
other for six years in resisting the Emperor's edicts, 



138 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

to support John of Saxony in his protest against 
Ferdinand's election, and to seek aid from France, 
England, Denmark, even Zapolya, Prince of Tran- 
sylvania, in case they were summoned to appear be- 
fore the imperial tribunal. 

While the Emperor was fighting in foreign coun- 
tries, the Smalkaldic League became a great power 
in Germany. The leaguers made treaties with for- 
eign powers, secularized episcopal sees, overran 
Catholic neighbors with fire and sword, and defied 
with impunity the imperial diets and tribunals. 
Their foremost leader, Philip of Hesse, was firmly 
bound to the cause of Lutheranism by a decision 
of the Wittenberg theologians, which struck at the 
root of Christian morality. Philip had been mar- 
ried sixteen years to Christine, daughter of George 
of Saxony, and was the father of eight children. 
Luther, by a document signed by himself and four 
other theologians, allowed him to marry Margaret 
von der Saale in addition to his lawful wife. Mar- 
garet's own scruples against such a " marriage " 
had to be overcome by one of the " reformers." 
The unholy union was solemnized by the court 
preacher Melander (who had himself three living 
wives) in the presence of Melanchthon and other 
church and state delegates from Saxony. 

On February 18, 1546, Luther died in his native 
city of Eisleben. His last years were embittered by 



THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 139 

violent controversies with his colleagues, by the evil 
lives of his followers, and by terrors of conscience. 
His confessions are numerous that his work as a 
" reformation " was a hopeless failure. He often 
compared the piety of the people in papal times with 
the impiety displaying itself under the gospel. He 
declared '^Wittenberg worse than Sodom." He 
continued, nevertheless, in his last works to rave 
against " the Popedom founded by the devil " and 
to appeal to the nation " to burn out the Jews with 
brimstone, pitch, and hell fire." 
- In 1547, at Miihlberg, the Emperor succeeded in 
completely scattering the Smalkad army. The 
league was dissolved. But the suppression of the 
league was followed by a conspiracy of Protestant 
princes, secretly headed by Maurice of Saxony, who 
posed as the Emperor's public ally. Apparently 
obeying imperial orders, he concluded in the name 
of the Protestant princes an offensive treaty with 
Henry II of France. This treaty handed over the 
bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun to France 
and bound Henry II to invade Germany and to pay 
a large subsidy to the conspirators, 1551. Thus be- 
gan a war in the name of " German liberty " and 
the " pure word of God," both against Catholics 
and Protestants loyal to the Emperor, which sur- 
passed in cruelty and brutality even the Peasants' 
War. While the conspirators devastated hundreds 



140 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

of monasteries, villages, and towns in Middle and 
Upper Germany, Henry II overran Lorraine, oc- 
cupied Metz, Toul, arid Verdun, and compelled the 
people to swear homage to the crown of France. 
At the same time the Turks, allied with Henry II 
and the German conspirators, entered from the 
southeast and became masters of Hungary and Tran- 
sylvania, 1552. 

Meanwhile Charles V implicitly trusted Maurice 
of Saxony, who during all this time of treachery 
continued to send messages of loyalty and " filial 
love " to his " greatest benefactor," until Maurice 
himself marched into the Tyrol, scattered the few 
troops of Charles, and drove the Emperor from 
Innsbruck. Retreating to Carinthia, Charles V left 
the continuation of the war in the hands of his 
brother, Ferdinand. Negotiations for. a truce in 
political and religious matters, which should last un- 
til the assembling of a general diet, were begun at 
Passau, while the war of devastation went on. A 
defeat of the conspirators at Frankfort induced 
Maurice to accept Ferdinand's proposal for a paci- 
fication to be effected in a general diet. 

The diet agreed upon met after many delays in 
Augsburg. The so-called " Religious Peace of 
Augsburg " became for the German people a source 
of unspeakable sufferings. Henceforth both Prot- 
estant and Catholic princes were guided by the 



THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION 141 

maxim: "Cuius regio illius religio" The terri- 
torial ruler determines the faith of his subjects. Re- 
ligious liberty was not only fettered but annihilated. 
Luther's principle of "passive obedience," the un- 
conditional surrender of the subjects' most sacred 
rights of faith and conscience, to the rulings of 
princes, won a complete victory at Augsburg. 



XXIV 

EFFECTS OF THE RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION — THE 
CATHOLIC REVIVAL 



Effects on Public and Private Morality.— By cor- 
rupting and destroying the faith of Christ, the re- 
ligious Revolution undermined to a great extent the 
basis of Christian morality, and severed the bonds 
of law, order, and discipline. Luther's own testi- 
mony suffices to establish this fact. " Men are 
nowadays more covetous, more hardhearted, more 
corrupt, more licentious and more wicked than of 
old under the Papacy." " As soon as our gospel 
began, decency and modesty were done away with 
and everybody wished to be perfectly free to do 
whatever he liked." "After one devil (popery) 
has been driven out of us, seven worse ones have 
come down upon us, as is the case with princes, 
lords, nobles, citizens, and peasants." " Drunken- 
ness has now come down upon us like a deluge." 
" I have almost abandoned all hope for Germany, so 
universally has avarice, usury, tyranny, disunion, 

and the whole host of untruth, wickedness and 

142 



EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION 143 

treachery, as well as disregard qf the word of God, 
and the most unheard of ingratitude, taken pos- 
session of the nobility, the courts, the towns, and the 
villages." So Luther wrote, in 1541, when in the 
height of his triumph. A few months before his 
death he wrote to his wife: "Let us but fly from 
this Sodom ! I will wander through the world and 
beg my bread from door to door rather than embit- 
ter and disturb my poor old last days by this spec- 
tacle of the disorder of Wittenberg, and the fruit- 
lessness of my bitter toil in its service." 

" In these latter times the world has taken to it- 
self a boundless license. Very many are so un- 
bridled as to throw off every bond of discipline, 
though at the same time they pretend that they have 
faith." " Never in the days of our fathers has 
there existed such gluttony as exists now and is daily 
on the increase" (Melanchthon). "The people, 
as soon as they know how to attack our adversaries, 
believe that they are perfect Christians. Mean- 
while there is nowhere to be seen modesty, charity, 
zeal or ardor for God's glory, and in consequence 
of our conduct God's holy name is everywhere sub- 
jected to horrible blasphemies" (Bucer). "No- 
body cares to instruct his child, his servant, his maid, 
or any of his dependents in the word of God or 
His fear; and thus our young generation is the 
very worst that ever existed " (Althammer). 



144 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

In proportion as the true faith was wantonly 
corrupted, the grossest forms of superstition took 
possession of the deserted field. Throughout his 
career Luther had constantly to do with the devil. 
He often fancied to see him and to dispute with 
him, he ascribed to him all his reverses, delivered 
to him all his enemies. He spoke, wrote, and 
preached of him, especially in his later years. He 
inflamed the public mind with all the phantoms 
and illusions of popular superstition, and 'advocated 
without mercy or discretion the most far-reaching 
persecution of supposed sorcerers and witches. 
Melanchthon, Bucer, and other leaders of revolt 
shared the same superstitions. All mysterious or 
unexplained phenomena in nature and human life 
were ascribed to demoniac operations. The litera- 
ture, books, pamphlets, periodicals of the times teem 
with lurid descriptions and gruesome particulars of 
possessions, conjurations, compacts with the devil 
and sorceries. The fearful delusions of witchcraft 
and witch persecution seized both Catholic and 
Protestant countries, but with a difference. In the 
period of 1520 to 1570, very few records of witch 
trials exist in Catholic countries, though there were 
very many in Protestant countries. While in the 
next fifty years some Catholic territories were rela- 
tively spared, the burning of witches raged in the 
Catholic dioceses of Treves, Bamberg, and Wiirz- 



EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION 145 

burg. In Treves, 368 persons, were burnt in 22 
towns and villages, in the territory of Bamberg 600, 
and in that of Wiirzburg, 900. In Lorraine, the 
Protestant judge Remegius, in the space of 15 years, 
sentenced 950 persons to death, whilst in the arch- 
diocese of Cologne nobody was harmed. The fa- 
mous Protestant jurist and judge Carpzov in elec- 
toral Saxony signed approximately 20,000 death 
sentences. Catholic princes, bishops, and abbots 
soon put a stop to the trials. The abbot of Swalbach 
sent his judge to the block. The first seven and 
most effective opponents of the superstition and of 
the trials were Catholics, foremost among them the 
Jesuit Frederick of Spee, who as confessor of the 
victims in Wiirzburg, had gained a practical in- 
sight into the iniquity of these trials. His " Cau- 
tio criminalis," published in 1631, gave the death- 
blow to these processes as far as Catholics were 
concerned. Many Protestant jurists and theolo- 
gians fell into line and condemned the wicked pro- 
cedures. The last witch burnt in Europe was a girl 
of 17 years, in the Protestant canton of Glarus, 

1783- 

The Religious Revolution destroyed the unity of 
Christendom in which the different nations of Catho- 
lic Europe had been united into one family. In 
this Christian Republic the law of Christ, the 
spiritual guidance of a common Father, and a re- 



146 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

cognized code of international order, had ruled 
families, communities, guilds, and states. The 
Revolution severed all the bonds of law, order, dis- 
cipline, loyalty, and patriotism, and put in their place 
violence, anarchy, treason, rebellion, regicide, and 
finally the Social Revolution. " The Reformation 
was a Revolution in its most terrible form. ,, " By 
the ecclesiastical Revolution everything was called 
into question at one blow, first in the thoughts of 
men, and with incredible rapidity in all institutions, 
order and discipline " (Droysen). " The Reforma- 
tion was the deepest source of all our evils; from 
that event date all our misfortunes. All the political 
impotence of Germany (from 1550 to 1850), the 
threatening revolutionary outbreaks, nearly all the 
dissensions of the last century have their real cause 
in the religious Revolution " (Bohmer in 1849). 
" The development of revolutionary State theories 
were the necessary, the inevitable consequences of 
the Reformation " (Leo). 

11 

The frightful demoralization of the Revolution 
period was by no means confined to the countries 
which had openly adopted Lutheranism, but en- 
tered and pervaded to a most alarming extent the 
Catholic territories, so that, in the middle of the 
sixteenth century, Protestant Germany was hardly 



EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION 147 

confronted by a really Catholic Germany. There 
were grave reasons to fear that even Bavaria, Aus- 
tria, and the spiritual principalities would be lost to 
the Church. In Austria, only one-eighth of the 
population was actively Catholic. The Catholic 
princes in the first half century of the Revolution 
were weak and helpless, and even the better ones too 
much engaged in warding off attacks to find time 
for building up. With a few honorable exceptions, 
the bishops, mostly younger sons of noble houses, 
were sunk in worldly pursuits and pleasures. In 
many dioceses the majority of the clergy openly 
violated the laws of celibacy. With celibacy the 
rest of the priestly duties were neglected, and the 
unfaithful shepherds, despised by the people, un- 
dermined their own authority and that of the 
Church. There was an enormous decrease in the 
number of aspirants to the priesthood. In the mid- 
dle of the century 1,500 parishes, then much larger 
than now, were deprived of all pastoral care. Mon- 
asteries and universities shared the widespread cor- 
ruption. The bad example of the superiors and the 
lack of proper pastoration was reflected in the gen- 
eral demoralization of the people. Under Catholic 
forms a latent Protestantism spread far and wide, 
and was more difficult to combat than open apostasy. 
Hence the Catholic revival was of necessity slow 
and gradual, not so effective in its earlier stages 



148 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

as the indefatigable champions of the Catholic re- 
form desired. 

The Catholic revival was effected by the Papacy, 
the Council of Trent, the labors of apostolic men, 
the foundation of new Orders and Congregations, 
and a splendid array of contemporary and post- 
Tridentine Saints. The order that was to play the 
greatest part in the work of true reform and edu- 
cation and the conversion of heathen nations was 
the Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius of 
Loyola. 

Ignatius (Don Inigo Lopes Ricalde y Loyola) 
was born in 1491 at Loyola, a castle in northern 
Spain. Having been wounded at the siege of Pam- 
peluna, 1521, he left court and army, and retired 
to Manresa. Here he wrote the " Spiritual Exer- 
cises." After a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he began 
his studies at the age of 33 in Alcala and Salamanca. 
At Paris, where he became Master of Philosophy, 
and finished his theological studies, he gathered his 
first companions around him, — Francis Xavier, 
Jacob Lainez, Lefevre, and others, all young men, 
eminent for learning and piety. With these he laid 
the foundation of a new apostolic order in the church 
of Montmartre, near Paris, 1534. In 1540 Pope 
Paul III approved the order under the name of 
" Society of Jesus." Ignatius was chosen its first 
general, and, at the bidding of Paul III, wrote the 



EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION 149 

ten books of its Constitution. At his death, in 
1556, the society numbered over 1,000 members in 
100 houses, divided into 12 provinces. The so- 
ciety is ruled by a general, who is elected for life 
in the General Congregation, the legislative body 
of the order. A number of colleges and residences 
form a province, governed by a provincial. A num- 
ber of provinces form an assistency, and have a 
representative or assistant near the general. The 
aim of the " Company of Jesus " expressed in its 
motto, "Ad maiorem Dei gloriam" is to work for 
the honor of God and the salvation of men, and 
comprises, besides the ordinary labors of the apos- 
tolic ministry, home and foreign missions and the 
higher education of youth. The number of colleges 
conducted by the order gradually rose to 900 in 
Europe and the missionary countries. The first 
duty of a member is strict but rational obedience. 
The professed fathers add to the three vows com- 
mon to all religious orders a special vow of obe- 
dience to the Holy See, by which they bind them- 
selves to go unreservedly to any part of the world 
where the Pope may wish to send them. The So- 
ciety of Jesus, the friars of the Dominican and 
Franciscan Orders, the Lazarist missionaries, in ad- 
dition to their reformatory work at home, have 
founded flourishing missions with millions of con- 
verted heathens in India, China, Japan, Western 



150 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Asia, Africa, and North and South America, and 
thus in a measure compensated the loss which the 
Church sustained in Europe through the Religious 
Revolution. 

The Council of Trent, in 1 545-1 563, was con- 
voked for " the propagation of the faith, the ele- 
vation of the Christian religion, the uprooting of 
heresies, the restoration of peace, the reformation 
of the clergy and the Christian populace, and the 
overthrow of the enemies of the Christian . name." 
In its dogmatical chapters and canons, among other 
things, it declared Holy Writ and Tradition to be 
the norm of faith; vindicated the necessity of good 
works and the freedom of the human will against 
Luther's errors, and defined the doctrine of the 
Seven Sacraments, of Transubstantiation, and the 
Real Presence, of the Mass as a true sacrifice, of 
the sufficiency of Holy Communion under one kind, 
of purgatory, indulgences, and the veneration of 
saints, relics and images. 

The reformatory decrees enjoined the suppres- 
sion of abuses, restricted ecclesiastical benefices, 
regulated the duties of the clergy, especially the duty 
of episcopal residence, episcopal visitation of 
churches and clerical celibacy; made excellent pro- 
vision for the education of the clergy in diocesan 
seminaries, and ordained the holding of annual 
diocesan synods and triennial provincial councils. 



EFFECTS OF THE REVOLUTION 151 

Its immense importance is indicated by two ef- 
fects. 1. It did away with all the fluctuations in 
doctrine which the Protestant controversy had in- 
duced. While its efforts failed to bring about a 
co-operation and reunion of the Protestants, its 
dogmatic decisions furnished the unerring basis on 
which every future reunion was to be effected. 2. 
It created a system of reforms, which, beginning at 
the court of Rome and working its way through all 
the grades of the hierarchy and priesthood to the 
Catholic people, became of the greatest importance. 
The faithful were again subjected to the discipline 
of the Church. Seminaries were founded, where 
young ecclesiastics were carefully brought up under 
strict discipline and in the fear of God. The par- 
ishes were regulated anew, the administration of the 
sacraments and preaching subjected to fixed or- 
dinances. The bishops were strictly held to their 
duties, especially to the superintendence of the 
clergy. The bishops, from that to the present day, 
solemnly bound themselves by a special confession 
of faith, signed and sworn, to observe the decrees of 
the Council of Trent and to submit to the Pope, 
whose primacy of jurisdiction, as instituted by 
Christ, was recognized by the universal church. 

The decrees of the Council of Trent, confirmed 
by a bull of Pius IV, were, since 1564, accepted by 
the Catholic princes and ecclesiastical provinces of 



152 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Germany for their territories, and in 1566 by Maxi- 
milian II and the Diet of Augsburg for the empire. 
The Catholic upbuilding received further aid 
from the protection of Catholic princes, who rightly 
deemed it their first duty to safeguard the true re- 
ligion as the greatest boon to their peoples. To 
this class belonged Ferdinand II and Ferdinand 
III, archdukes and emperors of the House of Aus- 
tria, Albert and Maximilian of Bavaria, and the 
spiritual electors and prince-bishops of Germany. 
Convinced of the truth of Catholicity and authorized 
by the natural and canon laws, they had a legal right 
to apply the maxim of the Religious Peace of 
Augsburg: Cuius regio illius religio, and to remove 
the disturbers of the religious peace from their ter- 
ritories. In this they did but what all the Protes- 
tant princes practiced, with this difference, however, 
that the latter involved themselves in a manifest 
contradiction. For whilst they posed as champions 
of individual liberty, and private interpretation, they 
nevertheless forced their subjects to accept their own 
creeds. 



XXV 



/s 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 



1618-1648 

The war that ravaged Germany for thirty years 
was a religious and political war affecting the vital 
interests of Germany; but, nurtured by foreign na- 
tions, it rapidly took on the guise of a decidedly 
political war and in its effects assumed more and 
more a European character. 

Ever since 1555, the Protestants had been violat- 
ing the Religious Peace of Augsburg. Calvinism, 
introduced by Palsgrave Frederick III, destroyed 
everything Catholic in churches and monasteries 
with ruthless barbarity. Thus the Germans were 
divided into three parties: the aggressive Calvinist 
party, supported by a few Lutheran princes; the 
defensive Catholic party, led by the Dukes of Ba- 
varia, and a middle class comprising the majority of 
the Lutherans, who were loyal to the Emperor, led 
by John George, Elector of Saxony. 

While the Protestants became more and more 
divided in doctrine, religious" zeal was rekindled 
among the Catholics. The publication of the de- 

i53 



154 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

crees of the Council of Trent, numerous popular mis- 
sions, and the truly reformatory work of the Capu- 
chins, a new branch of Franciscans, and the Jesuits, 
inspired the people with a fresh fervor. Peter Cani- 
sius, by his work in the diets, in the pulpit, in the 
university chairs, and by his Catechism and other re- 
ligious publications, earned the name of a second 
Apostle of Germany. While in Protestant Germany 
public education sank to the lowest level, Jesuit col- 
leges were founded in the principal cities, and by 
their high efficiency, order, and discipline, attracted 
not only Catholic, but Protestant parents and chil- 
dren. The German College in Rome, and the new 
seminaries founded in accordance with the Triden- 
tine decrees, supplied the bishops with exemplary 
priests. Not only was the spread of Protestantism 
arrested before the outbreak of the Thirty Years' 
War, but the Catholic faith was fully restored in the 
Austrian countries of Styria, Carinthia, and Car- 
niola, in the territory of Wtirzburg, in Westphalia, 
in the Duchy of Cleves, and partially in the dioceses 
of Augsburg and Salzburg. Three renowned Ba- 
varian dukes, Albrecht V, jWilliam V, and Maxi- 
milian, and the pious Archduke Ferdinand of Sty- 
ria, were the chief promoters of the Catholic resto- 
ration in Germany and Austria. With the end of 
the century the destructive advance of Lutheran- 
ism and Calvinism stopped. The " Reformation 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 155 

had spent itself as a living force." Zeal, devotion, 
learning, self-sacrifice, religious enthusiasm, were 
all on the side of the Church. 

The immediate successors of Charles V were not 
strong enough to check the advance of Protestant- 
ism or to exercise a decisive influence on the con- 
flict of parties. At the time of the accession of 
Ferdinand I (1556— 1564), the empire was in a sad 
state; indeed it had been going backwards rather 
than forwards in all good things since the time of 
Frederick Barbarossa. The Emperor was a sincere 
Catholic, a great peace-maker, yet firm in upholding 
the Ecclesiastical Reservation in the German diets. 
Unfortunately, he was chiefly occupied in defending 
the Hungarian frontiers against Turkish invasions. 
At his death he divided all the countries over which 
he held dominion among his sons, thus founding 
an Austrian Line of Habsburg (Austria, Bohemia, 
Hungary), a Tyrolese Line (The Tyrol and pos- 
sessions in Suabia and Alsace), and a Styrian Line 
(Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, etc.). 

Maximilian II (1564— 1576) was as weak as he 
was insincere, a Catholic with Catholics, a Protes- 
tant at heart, took no steps to prevent violations of 
the Peace of Augsburg in Germany, and in his 
own countries he greatly favored the Protestants. 

Still more unfortunate was the reign of his son 
Rudolf II (1576— 1612). He was a scholar, loved 



156 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

sciences and arts, dabbled in alchemy and astron- 
omy, but had so wavering and suspicious a temper 
that the performance of his official duties became at 
times an unbearable burden to him. The reaction 
in favor of Catholicism which set in during his 
reign, though not through his agency, made him 
many enemies among the German Calvinists, while 
his inactivity in a new Turkish war dissatisfied the 
people of his hereditary lands. 

Matthias (1612-1619), Rudolf's brother, was as 
powerless as his predecessors. The Evangelical 
Union, which had been founded in 1608 to obtain 
by force what the diets had refused to grant, and 
whose chief promoters were Henry IV of France, in 
his desire to destroy the House of Habsburg, and 
his Germany confidant, the diplomatic Christian of 
Anhalt, openly avowed its intention of transferring, 
at the next election, the imperial dignity to another 
House. To prevent the consummation of this plan, 
the childless Matthias adopted Archduke Ferdinand 
of Styria and proposed him as his successor to the 
Bohemian estates. Notwithstanding some oppo- 
sition, Archduke Ferdinand was unanimously ac- 
cepted as Bohemia's future king and solemnly 
crowned with the crown of St. Wenzel, in 161 7. 
The following year he received the crown of St. 
Stephen in Pressburg, the capital of Hungary. 

The Bohemian and Palatine Wars. — In 1609, 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 157 

Rudolf II, as King of Bohemia/had issued a Royal 
Charter granting freedom of conscience to all sub- 
jects, reserving the right of building churches to the 
territorial lords of the three estates. Several years 
later Protestant subjects living under the jurisdic- 
tion of ecclesiastical lords, in violation of the Royal 
Charter, built two Protestant churches, one in the 
territory of the Archbishop of Prague, the other 
in that of the abbot of Braunau. In consequence 
of legal proceedings the former was demolished, the 
latter closed, in 1619. This caused general em- 
bitterment among the Protestants. Their armed 
envoys invaded the royal castle at Prague and threw 
two imperial councillors together with a private sec- 
retary out of the window into the moat surrounding 
the castle. As the Emperor could not suffer such 
insult to his representatives to go unpunished, the 
Bohemian Protestants armed themselves and chose 
the leader of their nobility, Count Thurn, as com- 
mander-in-chief of the army to be levied against the 
Emperor; the Union reinforced the rebels with 2,000 
men under the command of Ernest of Mansfield, a 
deserter and adventurer, who soon came to be known 
as the " curse of Germany," Whilst John George 
of Saxony tried to mediate, and Maximilian of 
Bavaria revived the Catholic Liga, Matthias died 
in March, 1619, and Ferdinand //became King of 
Bohemia. At the diet of Frankfort, August 28, 



158 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

1 6 19, he was chosen Emperor by unanimous vote. 
The Protestants, however, refused to acknowledge 
him as King of Bohemia, and chose Palsgrave Fred- 
erick V, head of the Union, King of Bohemia. 
With great pomp he was crowned at Prague ; but in 
Bohemia he soon became unpopular by his dissolute 
life and his forcible introduction of Calvinism, and 
his rule was not to last very long. Maximilian of 
Bavaria, the mightiest Catholic prince of Germany, 
irreproachably pure in his private and public life, 
cooperated with Ferdinand, entrusting the command 
of the army of the Liga to his great general, Tilly. 
The latter, a conqueror in thirty-six battles, was cau- 
tious in his plans, prompt in execution, and brave in 
the conflict. In all dangers of camp and campaign 
he was a model of piety, chastity, and temperance. 
His troops were the best disciplined in the war; 
his soldiers used to call him " Father John." In 
his campaigns in Protestant countries he used to 
protect the churches with his own guard against any 
violation. He was undoubtedly the purest and 
noblest character in the tragedy of the Thirty Years' 
War. 

Maximilian and Tilly entered Bohemia, took city 
after city, and marched upon Prague. The enemy 
was drawn up on an eminence outside the walls, 
called the White Hill. Here, in 1620, the army of 
the Liga completely defeated the Bohemians. Fred- 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 159 

erick fled into Holland. As he had ruled for one 
winter only, he was mockingly surnamed the " .Win- 
ter King." After the battle Bohemia with its 
crownlands submitted to the Emperor, the Catholic 
religion was restored, the Evangelical Union broken 
up, and twenty-seven insurrectionary leaders were 
executed. Before another generation Bohemia was 
definitely ranged among the Catholic countries of 
Europe. 

Frederick's allies, Mansfield, Christian of Bruns- 
wick, better known as Christian of Halberstadt, and 
the Margrave of Baden, continued the war in the 
Palatinate. But they were defeated by Tilly in the 
battles of Giessen (1621), Wimpfen, Hochst 
(1622), and Stadtlohn (1623). The electorship 
was transferred from the outlawed Palsgrave to 
Maximilian of Bavaria. The new elector received 
the Upper Palatinate as security for his expenses. 

The Danish War. — The war was renewed when 
King Christian IV of Denmark, as Duke of Hol- 
stein a prince of the Lower Saxon circle, sought to 
secure some German bishoprics, dominion over the 
mouths of the German rivers, and the command 
of the North Sea. While his agents represented 
the conflict to the common people as a religious war, 
his own aim was chiefly conquest. He had con- 
cluded an alliance, in 1625, with England, Holland, 
and a number of the Lower Saxon princes, France 



160 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

paying subsidies to him without openly joining the 
League. 

The army of the League, under Tilly, was not 
strong enough to oppose the coalition of foreign 
and domestic enemies. The Emperor's treasury 
was empty. In these straits, Albrecht of Wallen- 
stein, Duke of Friedland in Bohemia, offered to 
levy and support an army on condition that he 
be given chief command. Ferdinand accepted the 
offer. In a few months Wallenstein had collected 
an army of 30,000 men. At Dessau (1626) he 
was met by Mansfield. The latter, however, was 
completely routed. He fled into Hungary intending 
to join Bethlen Gabor, who had risen against the 
Emperor. Wallenstein followed him in. an inner 
circle covering Vienna. Bethlen Gabor, too weak 
to cope with Wallenstein's numbers, sued for peace 
and obliged Mansfield to leave Hungary. The great 
marauder, who by his total want of morality and 
patriotism had been the worst foe to the peace of 
Germany, passed away on his way to Venice. 

Meanwhile the forces of the League, reinforced 
by 8,000 men of Wallenstein's army, had achieved 
a still greater success on the Weser. Tilly over- 
took and defeated the Danes at Lutter. Thereupon 
he joined Wallenstein, who had returned from Hun- 
gary, and with him attacked the territory of the 
King of Denmark. Holstein, Schleswig, and Jut- 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 161 

land were conquered. By the- Peace of Liibeck 
(1629) Christian received back all his hereditary 
possessions, but renounced for himself and his son 
all claim to the coveted German bishoprics and 
promised to meddle no further with German af- 
fairs. 

Two months before this peace was signed, March, 
1629, the Emperor had issued the Edict of Resti- 
tution, by which Protestant princes were ordered to 
restore the bishoprics, monasteries, and other church 
foundations seized in violation of the Religious 
Peace of Augsburg. While there can be no ques- 
tion as to the legality of the measure, Ferdinand 
keeping strictly within the Peace of Augsburg, the 
measure naturally roused the most bitter opposition 
among the Protestants and made a continuation of 
the war inevitable. 

At the Diet of Ratisbon (1630) so many com- 
plaints were raised against Wallenstein and his 
army, that the Emperor was compelled to dismiss 
him. With apparent indifference Wallenstein re- 
tired into private life, setting up a kingly household 
in his duchy of Friedland, with revenge in his heart. 

The Swedish War (1630— 1635). — The weakness 
of the empire resulting from the retirement of Wal- 
lenstein was cleverly taken advantage of by Gus- 
tavus Adolphus II, King of Sweden. Ever since 
the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, Gustavus 



162 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Adolphus had been watching for an opportunity to 
enter the struggle as the independent leader of a 
Protestant army. In 1626, he took the town and 
harbor of Pillau, in ducal Prussia, without a declara- 
tion of war. In 1628, Stralsund opened its gates 
to his garrison. His own safety was bound up with 
Protestantism, as it was only the strength of Prot- 
estantism which secured him against the just 
hereditary claims of his cousin, the Catholic King of 
Poland. To extend his dominion to both shores of 
the Baltic, to weld the Protestant territories of 
Germany into a corpus evangelicum under his lead- 
ership, to subject the Catholic territories of Middle 
Germany to his own scepter, and thus to found a 
great Protestant Empire of the North, was the 
dream of his soaring ambition. During his reign 
Catholicity in Sweden was punished with death. 

On July 4, 1630, Gustavus Adolphus, at the head 
of 15,000 tried soldiers, landed without a declara- 
tion of war on the coast of Pomerania, which Wal- 
lenstein had left without protection ; 30,000 more 
stood ready as a reserve in Sweden. The King 
forced the aged duke of Pomerania to sign a treaty 
which gave Pomerania forever into the power of 
Sweden at the expense of the lawful heir, the elec- 
tor of Brandenburg. 

Soon after, Richelieu, the all-powerful French 
minister, in his efforts to permanently weaken the 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 163 

House of Habsburg, concluded- with Gustavus the 
Treaty of Bdrwalde, by which France was to pay 
an annual subsidy of one million francs to the King 
of Sweden. 

In the spring of 1631, Tilly opened the campaign. 
His plan was to force the Swedes to a decisive bat- 
tle; Gustavus's plan, to tire out Tilly's army by 
marches and countermarches. New Brandenburg, 
taken by the Swedes, was retaken by Tilly. Called 
away, however, by Maximilian to join General Pap- 
penheim in the siege of Magdeburg, Tilly had to 
give free scope to Gustavus, who captured Frank- 
fort on the Oder. Magdeburg was, at this stage 
of the war, the most important fortress by its 
strength and position. Tilly stormed the city on 
May 20, after a siege of several months, and after 
he had three times offered terms of capitulation. 
Falkenberg, a marshal of Gustavus Adolphus, had 
the supreme direction of the defense. During the 
time of the sacking of the city, which Tilly cut down 
to an hour and a half instead of three hours allowed 
by the right of war then existing, a great confla- 
gration suddenly broke forth. The greatest part of 
Magdeburg was burned to the ground. The evi- 
dence that the defenders themselves caused the de- 
struction of the city is overwhelming. All the eye- 
witnesses of the catastrophe agree in this. The 
destruction of Magdeburg was a great disadvantage 



164 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

to Tilly, since through it he lost an almost insur- 
mountable obstacle in the foreign invader's way. 

Soon after, Tilly saw himself confronted by the 
superior numbers of the enemy at Breitenfeld, near 
Leipsic. After a fiercely contested battle he was 
defeated. This battle at one blow destroyed the 
work of the preceding ten years, crippled the im- 
perial power, rent asunder Germany's political unity, 
and destroyed her national spirit by making a for- 
eign king, paid by another foreign king, the hero 
of the Protestant half of the country. 

In the spring of 1631, on the Lech, not far from 
its mouth, Gustavus encountered and defeated Tilly 
a second time. Here the Catholic hero, betrayed 
and left to his fate by the reappointment of Wal- 
lenstein, received his mortal wound. His army was 
scattered. 

All Germany was now at the feet of Gustavus, 
save the Austrian countries. In his straits the Em- 
peror had recourse to Wallenstein. Before long the 
" Duke of Friedland," who had carried on secret 
negotiations with Gustavus and Richelieu, had or- 
ganized an army and forced the enemy to evacuate 
Bavaria. At Lutzen a terrible battle was fought, 
in which the Swedish conqueror fell mortally 
wounded. At nightfall the imperial forces, short 
of provisions, withdrew to Leipsic. The Swedes 
were in possession of the battlefield till morning and 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 165 

on this account claimed the victory of Liitzen. 

Wallenstein, after this battle, withdrew into Bo- 
hemia, where he remained for the most part inactive. 
He even treacherously began negotiations with 
France, in order to gain the crown of Bohemia. 
In February, 1634, an imperial patent publicly 
charged him and his adherents with high treason 
and ordered the army to obey Gallas, Piccolomini, 
and other loyal generals. When Wallenstein saw 
that the majority of the army would remain loyal 
to the Emperor, he marched with a small detachment 
to Eger, to join the Swedes approaching under Ber- 
nard of Weimar. There a few officers, Gordon, 
Butler, and Leslie, resolved to prevent the accom- 
plishment of Wallenstein's treason by slaying him 
and his chief supporters. The leading conspirators 
were assassinated at a banquet in the castle of Eger, 
while Wallenstein himself was pierced with a hal- 
berd by Captain Devereaux of the Irish Dragoons 
at his lodgings in the town. 

The Franco-Swedish Period of the War. — 
Chiefly through the fault of France, the war con- 
tinued fourteen years longer. Up to this time 
France had been helping the enemies of the Em- 
peror financially; now she also sent her army into 
unfortunate Germany. The war was waged no 
longer for religious principles and motives, but for 
booty. France sought the German provinces on the 



1 66 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Rhine, especially Alsace. Sweden desired to extend 
its territory on the Baltic. The French fanned the 
flames of discord among the Germans and encour- 
aged the Swedes to continue the strife. 

The Swedes won their first decisive advantage 
after their rout at Nordlingen in the bloody battle 
of Wittstock, in which they inflicted the heaviest 
defeat of the war on the united imperial and Saxon 
armies, 1636. Famine and pestilence materially 
aided the Swedes to reduce Saxony to a desert. 
Horrible as the war had been from its commence- 
ment, it was every day assuming a more repulsive 
character. On both sides all traces of discipline had 
vanished in the dealings of the armies with the in- 
habitants of the countries in which they were quar- 
tered. The Swedes, however, outstripped all others 
in fiendish excesses. Their cruelty became a by- 
word in Germany. 

Ferdinand II died in 1637, and was succeeded by 
his son, Ferdinand III (1637-1657), King of Hun- 
gary, who the year before had been chosen King of 
the Romans. He resembled his father in his Catho- 
lic piety, the purity of his family life, and his sin- 
cere desire for peace. By putting an end to his 
father's unreasonable expenditures, he greatly im- 
proved the financial administration of the govern- 
ment. His economy alone enabled him to continue 
a war which was brutally forced upon him by 



THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 167 

France and Sweden. Together, with the Swedes, 
the French made an attack on Bavaria and devas- 
tated the latter country. A Swedish general in- 
vaded Bohemia and took a fortified suburb of 
Prague. The final objective of the allied campaign 
was Vienna. The invaders were interrupted in 
their operations by the news that the peace had 
been signed at Osnabriick and Minister. Thus the 
war ended where it had begun. 

The Peace of Westphalia (1648). — The princi- 
pal stipulations of the Peace of Westphalia were as 
follows : The Religious Peace of Augsburg was 
confirmed; France obtained as much of Alsace as 
belonged to Austria; Sweden received the terri- 
tories at the mouths of the Oder and Weser, besides 
large money indemnifications ; Brandenburg, affected 
by the territorial grants to Sw T eden, was indemnified 
by the bishoprics of Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Min- 
den, and Kammin. The independence of Switzer- 
land was formally recognized, and the independence 
of the United Provinces, formally recognized by 
Spain, was silently acknowledged by the Congress. 

The Peace of Westphalia, while containing nu- 
merous violations of the rights of the Church, on 
the whole placed Catholics in a better condition than 
they had enjoyed before the war. In 1617, nine- 
tenths of the empire were overrun by Lutheranism 
and Calvinism; through the peace Germany was di- 



1 68 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

vided into two parts of almost equal strength; the 
North was compactly Protestant, the South and 
West on the whole Catholic. 

The effects of the Thirty Years' War were ter- 
rible. Three- fourths of the peasant population of 
Germany had perished in war or by pestilence and 
misery. Thousands of villages and towns were re- 
duced to ashes. Those who outlived the ravages 
of the enemy, had sunk into a state of semi-bar- 
barism. Industry and trade were so completely 
paralyzed that, in 1635, the Hanseatic League was 
virtually broken up, because the members, once so 
wealthy, were unable to meet the necessary expen- 
diture. 

After the Thirty Years' War it became fashion- 
able for the heirs of principalities to travel, and 
especially to spend some time at the court of France. 
Here they readily imbibed the ideas of Louis XIV, 
and in a short time nearly every petty court in Ger- 
many was a miniature imitation of Versailles. The 
princes ceased to be thorough Germans in sympathies 
and habits. A number of them even allowed them- 
selves to be won over by France. French statecraft, 
economic policy, and military system, which pre- 
sented to the princes an example of effective admin- 
istrative organization, all promised to place Germany 
more and more under the spell of its western neigh- 
bor. When the empire was replaced by a league 



THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR 169 

of sovereign states, each exercising to the fullest 
extent " state rights," and the whole not closely 
welded together, national consciousness vanished, 
the empire lost its power of resistence and became an 
easy prey for Louis XIV. 



XXVI 

FRENCH DEPREDATIONS 

For the growth of Germany it was controlling 
that two adjoining states waxed strong enough to 
bid for the leadership of the nation. Austria had 
been increased by the victorious conquests of Prince 
Eugene, by the addition of Hungary and adjoining 
provinces, Belgium and Lombardy, later Tuscany 
and Modena, and the great war prize at the par- 
titioning of Poland, viz., Galicia. 

Beside the many-tongued sovereignty of the 
Habsburgs, the " Great Elector " and Frederick 
William I placed the well-knit military power of 
Prussia, which seemed to be a match for the five- 
fold larger Austria and by its strenuous cohesion of 
its powers became a successful rival. 

Emperor Ferdinand III, who lived until 1657, 

was succeeded by his second son, Leopold, the eldest 

son having died before his father. Leopold I 

( 1 658-1 705) was a prince of high culture and great 

piety, mild and generous, a model in his private and 

family life. His unswerving truthfulness and the 

inviolability of his promises were recognized at 

170 



FRENCH DEPREDATIONS 171 

every court of Europe. But he had his share of 
Habsburg slowness, indecision, dependence upon 
advisers and lavishness in rewarding real or imag- 
inary services, while he lacked the energy to punish 
the enormous peculations of officials. Accordingly, 
he was always poor. Poverty was the chief cause 
that prevented him from driving the Turks out of 
Europe. Still no Habsburg reign ever had to re- 
cord greater wars and more glorious victories than 
the reign of this monarch, who was by nature emi- 
nently peace-loving. He was elected in spite of the 
bribes shamefully proffered by the agents of Louis 
XIV, and as shamefully accepted by the German -elec- 
tors, because historical tradition, the resources of 
his hereditary states, and their geographical posi- 
tion, made him the natural defender of western 
Christendom against the power of Islam. 

Louis XIV, one of whose aims it was to seek 
what he considered the natural limits of France, 
and with a complete disregard of political morality 
to obtain possession of the imperial crown, was con- 
stantly on the watch to gain all he could from Ger- 
many in its worn-out state, and succeeded in leagu- 
ing with the Electors of Mayence and Cologne and 
other German princes (" First Rhenish Confed- 
eracy") against the Emperor. In 1 667-1 668 he 
was able to place a check upon the Elector of Bran- 
denburg, and also upon Austria, the dynastic line of 



172 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

which was now reduced to one person, and threat- 
ened to become extinct like that of Spain. 

The resolution of Leopold I, in June, 1672, to 
enter the contest with Louis by an alliance with the 
weaker side for the defense of public right, was the 
starting point of the great European coalitions. 
The great military leader Turenne, reinforced by 
the troops of Miinster and Cologne, pushed the Aus- 
trian General Montecuculi and the Elector of Bran- 
denburg across the Rhine and the Weser, and main- 
tained an impregnable position in Westphalia. 

In August of the following year, treaties were 
signed between the Emperor, Spain, the Dutch Re- 
public and the Duke of Lorraine, subsequently 
joined by Denmark and Brandenburg. Their ob- 
ject was to restore the state of affairs as established 
by the treaties of Westphalia, the Pyrenees, and 
Aix-la-Chapelle, and to reinstate the exiled Duke of 
Lorraine in his possessions. 

The fall of Maestricht roused the Emperor and 
Spain to the utmost efforts. Montecuculi marched 
against Turenne and crossed the Rhine into the 
Palatinate. The French retreated on the whole 
line. The Dutch Republic and the right bank of 
the Rhine were freed from the enemy. 

The year 1674 witnessed Turenne's most brilliant 
exploits. After maneuvering with a small force 
on the Upper Rhine, and inflicting the first great 



FRENCH DEPREDATIONS 173 

devastation on the Palatinate, he concentrated by a 
splendid feat of strategy 40,000 men at Bel fort, 
surprised and routed Montecuculi at Muhlhausen, 
defeated the Elector of Brandenburg at Colmar, and 
cleared the left bank of the Rhine of the allied 
troops. 

During the campaigns of 1 675-1679 the land 
forces of the Swedes, who had entered Branden- 
burg at the urgent request of Louis XIV, were 
defeated at Fehrbellin by Frederick William, " the 
Great Elector." The imperial troops were defeated 
on the Rhine, and a peace was made at Nymwegen 
in 1678 for all Europe, when the Elector of Bran- 
denburg was forced to give up nearly all his con- 
quests to Sweden. Austria had to resign Freiburg 
im Breisgau to the French. 

Louis XIV was now at the summit of his power. 
His boundless ambition led him to annex various 
strips of territory on the western frontier of Ger- 
many (called " Reunions "), this unwarranted pro- 
cedure culminating in the occupation of Strassburg 
(1681). In 1683, while the Turks were encamped 
before Vienna, he took Luxemburg and Treves, 
dismantling the forts of the latter city. At the 
same time he constantly urged the diet of Ratisbon 
to acknowledge the legality of his annexations. 
When, however, his correspondence with Tokoly, 
the arch-rebel of Hungary, was laid before the 



174 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

courts of Europe, and Leopold steadfastly refused 
to cede the stolen territories, Louis contented him- 
self with a truce that left the question of right open. 
The reluctance of the Emperor to sacrifice Strass- 
burg was finally overcome by the unanimous vote 
of the German Deputies at Ryswick (1697), and 
peace was concluded between Louis XIV, the Em- 
peror and the Empire. Strassburg and the whole 
of Alsace, with its twelve imperial towns, were 
definitely separated from the Empire and remained 
in the possession of France until they were won 
back by the diplomacy of Bismarck and the armies 
of William I, in 1870. 

When all the territorial questions had been 
settled, Louis came forward with his famous de- 
mand, called the Ryswick clause. In all the places 
restored, the Catholic religion was to remain in the 
condition which had obtained during the French 
occupation. Catholicism had again taken firm root 
in many of these places administered by French 
officials. No personal right of the inhabitants was 
violated by the clause, whilst the inalienable rights 
of the Church were restored. Louis finally main- 
tained his point in the face of violent opposition on 
the part of the German Protestant princes and the 
moderate remonstrances of the imperial ambassa- 
dors. He was not a little assisted by the fact that 
the champions of Protestantism, William III, the 



FRENCH DEPREDATIONS 175 

high lordships, and the King o£ Sweden, having ob- 
tained their secular demands, no longer cared for the 
complaints of their brethren in the faith. Thus 
the clause remained a part of the Peace of Rys- 
wick. 



XXVII 

THE TURKISH WARS OF LEOPOLD I 

In 1 66 1, a new war broke out between Austria 
and Turkey. An election dispute in Transylvania, 
a crownland of Hungary under Turkish protection, 
furnished the Turks a pretext to overrun the coun- 
try with fire and sword. The absorption by Turkey 
of Transylvania would have imperiled Austria- 
Hungary. Leopold, therefore, aided Transylvania. 
Thereupon, the Turks, stirred up by the ambassadors 
of Louis XIV, advanced against Hungary with an 
army of 100,000 men. The decisive battle was won 
at St. Gotthard, on the upper Raab, by the imperial 
general Raymond Montecuculi, 1664. It was tne 
greatest victory by land which a Christian army 
had won over the Moslem for 300 years. A truce 
of twenty years, concluded nine days after the 
battle, guaranteed Transylvania the freedom of 
electing its princes, and confirmed some disputed 
territorial rights to the Emperor, but left the fron- 
tier fortress of Neuhausel in the hands of the Turks. 

Whilst the Emperor was fighting in the West for 

the sanctity and stability of treaty rights, Hungary 

176 



TURKISH WARS OF LEOPOLD I 177 

was stirred up to disaffection- and revolt by ambi- 
tious magnates and emissaries of Louis XIV. 
Emerich Tokoly, a bitter Calvinist and cruel priest- 
slayer, strove to found an independent Hungarian 
principality under the suzerainty of Turkey. He 
was supported by the King of France, who sent him 
half a million florins. He concluded a treaty with 
Mohammed IV, in which he owned himself a vassal 
and tributary of the Osmanic Empire, and was 
recognized by the Sultan as King of Upper or 
Austrian Hungary. In 1682 he raised the standard 
of rebellion, and at the head of 14,000 partisans 
took a few forts. Reinforced by 40,000 Turks 
under Ibrahim Pasha, he conquered the greater part 
of Austrian Hungary. Meanwhile Kara Mustafa, 
the grand vizier, had made extensive preparations 
for an invasion of the Occident. The Turkish army 
numbered 160,000 regulars, 30,000 Tartar horse- 
men, and an immense military train. Leopold had 
only 28,000 men scattered over Hungary, and a 
field army of 32,000 under the command of Charles 
V, the exiled Duke of Lorraine. Avoiding strong 
fortresses, and burning the habitations of men on 
their onward march, the Turks and Tartars made 
directly for Vienna, the capital of Austria. 

Three men saved Vienna and Christendom from 
the last and mightiest wave of aggressive Moham- 
medanism : Pope Innocent XI, who, filled with the 



178 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

spirit of the Crusaders, most fully represented the 
solidarity of Christendom against the Islam; John 
III Sobieski, who had previously fought the battles 
of his nation against the Crescent; and the great 
general and strategist, Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, 
commander-in-chief of the Christian army. 

The Tartar van arrived before Vienna, July 13, 
1683, followed by the main army, which began the 
siege on the next day. Ten to twelve thousand 
regular troops, whom Charles of Lorraine had suc- 
ceeded in throwing into the city, and the companies 
of armed citizens numbering about 4,000 men under 
the command of the energetic Count Rudiger of 
Staremberg, defended the capital. To increase the 
safety of the city proper, the defenders set the 
torch to the magnificent suburbs. High-born and 
low, clergy and laymen, worked on the . ramparts. 
Bishop Leopold Kollonitsch was indefatigable in 
rousing the courage of the besieged,, preserving 
harmony among the military and civil magistrates, 
superintending the care of the sick and wounded, 
and procuring pay for the soldiers. Vienna was 
completely inclosed by the Turks and the rich sur- 
rounding country devastated far and wide. Thou- 
sands of Christians were massacred or sent as slaves 
to the East. By the order of Mustafa 20,000 
Christians were slaughtered in a single day in the 
Favorita, the dismantled palace of the Empress. 



TURKISH WARS OF LEOPOLD I 179 

Exposed to the incessant fire of the Turks, the 
ravages of disease and the scarcity of provisions, 
the defenders were reduced to extremity, 5,000 reg- 
ulars and 1,600 city guards had fallen, 2,000 were 
in the hospitals, the Turkish mines had opened a 
wide breach in the inner fortification, when at 
length the relief arrived which had been so anxiously 
awaited by the heroic Staremberg. It consisted of 
80,000 Austrians, Poles, and Germans, and 160 field 
guns, under Sobieski, King of Poland, Charles V 
of Lorraine, and other leaders, who had effected a 
juncture at Krems on the Danube. 

On September 11, the army reached the heights 
of Kahlenberg, in sight of the city and the Turk- 
ish camp. On the morning of the 12th King Sobie- 
ski served Mass for Father Marco, and after Mass 
bestowed the honor of Knighthood on his son, 
Prince Jacob, in memory of the greatest day which 
he would live to see. The army moved in serried 
ranks down from the heights. They had to cross 
three mountain crests sloping gradually toward the 
plain and stretching like an amphitheatre around the 
camp and city. Every man could survey the whole 
battle. In several engagements the Christians re- 
pulsed the Turks, who strove to oppose their de- 
scent from the heights. Onward they pressed to 
the very tent of Kara Mustafa. A panic seized 
the enemy, and with the setting of the sun the 



180 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

whole Turkish camp with all its treasures and war 
materials was in the hands of the victors. The 
Christians lost only 500 men, while 8,000 Turks 
remained on the field, and the rest of the immense 
army was in full retreat toward Hungary. Thus 
Vienna was saved and the Occident forever freed 
from the pressure of Turkish aggression by land, 
which had lasted 600 years. 

In 1684, Leopold I, John III Sobieski, and the 
Republic of Venice concluded the Holy League un- 
der the auspices of Innocent XI. This alliance was 
directed exclusively against the Turks, and could 
under no pretext be turned against any other power. 
The allies, in 1685, routed two Turkish armies and 
all the forces of Tokoly, and reconquered the im- 
portant fortress of Neuhausel. A great number of 
rebellious towns surrendered to the Emperor. The 
following year became memorable for the siege and 
capture of Buda, the capital and most important 
fortress of Turkish Hungary, and shortly after- 
wards 7,000 men scattered another army of 20,000 
Turks and Tartars. Ludwig of Baden reduced a 
number of Turkish fortresses in quick succession. 
The decisive battle was fought at Mohacs, where, 
161 years before, Louis, the last heir of St. Stephen, 
had lost his army, kingdom, and life. In this battle 
Eugene of Savoy won his first laurels. The result 
of this victory was the complete conquest of Hun- 



TURKISH WARS OF LEOPOLD I 181 

gary, and the submission of Slavonia and Transyl- 
vania to the Emperor. In 1688, Belgrade, the key 
of the Osmanic Empire, was added to the Christian 
conquests. In the grand Diet of Hungary at Press- 
burg, Leopold confirmed the ancient constitution of 
the kingdom and granted an honest religious tolera- 
tion. The crown of Hungary was settled on the 
male line of the House of Habsburg according to 
primogeniture. 

In 1697, Eugene of Savoy was appointed com- 
mander-in-chief of the Christian army. He won 
the decisive battle of the war at Zenta, September 
10, 1697. The Turks were commanded by the Sul- 
tan himself, Mustafa, the warlike son of Mohammed 
IV. Eugene attacked the Turks while they were 
crossing the Theiss. The entire Turkish infantry 
was destroyed either by the sword of the assailants 
or the waves of the river. Camp and artillery fell 
into the hands of the victors. The Sultan fled in 
wild dismay. The terror of Eugene's name, and 
the news that Louis XIV had concluded peace with 
the maritime Powers without the stipulated consent 
of Turkey, induced Mustafa to sever his relations 
with France and to offer peace to the Emperor. 

Accordingly, the representatives of. the Holy 
League and of Turkey met in Carlowitz, the dilapi- 
dated town of old Sirmium, 1698. The Peace was 
signed January 26, 1699. The Emperor received 



1 82 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Hungary and Transylvania, independent of all 
Turkish interference. The Treaties of Ryswick 
and Carlowitz restored for a few years the peace 
of Europe. 



XXVIII 

FREDERICK II, THE GREAT, AND MARIA THERESIA. 

In the same year in which Frederick II ascended 
the throne as King of Prussia, the Emperor Charles 
VI died, followed by his daughter Maria Theresia. 
The latter was not acknowledged by some of the 
"European sovereigns as legitimate heiress of the 
Austrian crownlands. This gave rise to new con- 
flicts which plunged Europe and the whole civilized 
world into a series of sanguinary wars. 

Frederick IPs father, Frederick William I of 
Prussia, had been a passionate, coarse, and despotic 
man, a narrow Calvinist, harsh and even brutal to 
his family, but frugal, simple, and moral in his 
private life. But despite the repugnant traits of his 
character, Frederick William I remains a historical 
figure of the greatest importance. He produced 
the means whereby his son was able to raise Prussia 
to the level of a great Power. He left his son a 
well-filled treasury and a splendid army of 84,000 
men. 

Frederick II himself was a man of extraordinary 
resources, his intellect shrewd and calculating, his, 

183 



1 84 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

judgment rapid and clear. He was bold in danger, 
strong in adversity, indefatigable in the detail work 
of civil and military organization. Hard, selfish, 
and cynical, entirely devoid of religious principles 
or moral scruples, he was in political dealings callous 
to every sentiment of generosity or honor. In his 
internal government he introduced many beneficent 
measures. The very first days of his reign he 
granted toleration and abolished trial by torture. 
His rule was based on the maxim : " All for the 
people, nothing through the people." 

Maria There sia, who, on the extinction of the 
male line of the Habsburgs, in accordance with the 
" Pragmatic Sanction," succeeded her father in the 
government of the Austrian monarchy, was a 
woman of great accomplishments and personal 
charm. Her character was earnest, generous, 
chivalrous. She had at heart the good of her peo- 
ple. The principles of the Catholic faith were the 
mainsprings of her private life, but she was fre- 
quently deceived by Kaunitz and other advisers as 
to the real interests of the Church. Her court was 
the most virtuous of Europe. Whilst in the main 
she kept the reins of government in her own hands, 
she associated her husband, Francis Stephen of 
Lorraine, as co-regent with herself. 

The Silesian Wars. — In the beginning of Maria 
Theresia's reign no visible opposition was raised 



FREDERICK II, THE GREAT 185 

against her succession, except -by the protest of 
Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, who laid claim 
to Austria in virtue of his descent from Anne, the 
oldest daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I, and re- 
ferred to a will of 1547, in which mention was made, 
however, not of the failure of male but of legiti- 
mate heirs. Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and 
King of Poland, claimed the succession in the name 
of his wife, the eldest daughter of Joseph I. The 
Kings of Spain and Sardinia put in claims as de- 
scendants of Philip II. All these powers, except 
Charles Albert, had recognized the Pragmatic Sanc- 
tion. 

Frederick II acted in his own characteristic way. 
The very day on which the death of Charles VI 
was announced at Berlin, he confided to his min- 
ister his intention of annexing Silesia, whilst with 
the same breath he warmly protested his friendship 
to the young queen and her prince-consort. Pub- 
licly he recognized her royal title, but not until he 
had matured his plans for the actual invasion of her 
territory. Rights to Silesia he had none. Some 
shady claims to the duchies of Brieg, Liegnitz, 
Jagerndorf, and Wohlau were raised to satisfy pub- 
lic opinion. He himself based his claims on " his 
ready army and his well-filled exchequer." 

Without any declaration of war or intimation of 
his design, at a time when the province was enjoy-, 



1 86 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

ing perfect peace and was unprepared for defense, 
Frederick crossed the frontier of Silesia at the head 
of 30,000 men, December, 1740. Then, and not 
till then, he offered Maria Theresia his aid in de- 
fense of her throne, if she would cede to him Lower 
Silesia. The offer, of course, was rejected. There- 
upon the whole province was overrun by Prussian 
soldiers, and Breslau, the capital of Silesia, and 
other places were taken. In April, 1741, Marshal 
Schwerin won the battle of Mollwitz for the King 
of Prussia, after Frederick himself and his divi- 
sion had fled from the field. 

The battle of Mollwitz encouraged the greedy op- 
ponents of Maria Theresia to come forward. Fore- 
most of all was Fleury, minister of France. Set- 
ting at naught the solemn engagements of the Peace 
of Vienna, he pledged himself in a secret entente 
with Prussia which was to last for fourteen years 
to guarantee to Frederick the possession of Silesia, 
and to invade Germany with an army of 40,000 
men. In return Frederick was to cast his electoral 
vote for Charles Albert, the imperial candidate of 
France. Bavaria, Saxony, and Spain joined the 
convention of Nymphenburg (near Munich). Aus- 
tria was thus to lose the imperial dignity for the 
first time since Albrecht II. 

The Prussians now advanced into Moravia. The 
allied French and Bavarian armies invaded Upper 



FREDERICK II, THE GREAT 187 

Austria, menaced Vienna, but turned off into Bo- 
hemia. Prague was taken, and before the end of 
the year Charles Albert was crowned King of Bo- 
hemia and thereupon Emperor, assuming the title 
of Charles VII (1 742-1 745). 

Meanwhile Maria Theresia in her dire straits had 
gone to Pressburg in Hungary. When there she 
appealed to the chivalry of the Hungarians; the 
nobles cried out that they would sacrifice their lives 
and blood for her. A levy of 30,000 infantry was 
voted at once; the nobles bound themselves to serve 
in the cavalry. A secret truce arranged between 
Frederick II and Maria Theresia, as a preliminary 
for peace, enabled the Austrians to attack the rest 
of the allies in two brilliant campaigns. Frederick 
now offered a separate peace to Maria Theresia on 
the condition of retaining Silesia. Maria Theresia 
was willing to cede an equivalent but not Silesia. 
Thereupon the Prussian monarch broke the truce 
and with unexpected rapidity attacked and defeated 
Prince Charles of Lorraine, the brother of Francis 
Stephen, in the hotly contested battle of Chotusitz, 
1742. Peace was concluded at Breslau, by which 
Austria yielded to Prussia Lower and the greater 
part of Upper Silesia and the Bohemian county of 
Glatz; Prussia on her part withdrew from the 
Franco-Bavarian alliance. 

When, in the following year, Maria Theresia 



1 88 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

was victorious over the French, Frederick II, fear- 
ing for his recent conquests in Silesia, again allied 
himself with France and the Emperor and broke 
the peace by invading Bohemia. But as the French 
failed to send the promised army and Charles VII 
died on January 20, 1745, the King of Prussia was 
compelled to rely upon his own forces and to retire 
with great hardship and loss into Silesia. The Ba- 
varians made peace with Austria, and in Dresden 
(May, 1745) Bavaria, Saxony, and Austria agreed 
to reduce Prussia to its former condition as the 
Electorate of Brandenburg. The Prussian victo- 
ries of Hohenfriedberg in Silesia, Sohr in Bohemia, 
and Kesselsdorf in Saxony overthrew the allies and 
led to the desired Peace of Dresden. Maria 
Theresia guaranteed to Frederick the territorial 
possessions accorded to him in the Peace of Breslau, 
whilst Frederick recognized Maria Theresia's hus- 
band, Francis Stephen, who had been chosen Em- 
peror on October 4, 1745, and taken the name of 
Francis I (1745-1765). Thus the imperial dig- 
nity remained in the Habsburg family and the Prag- 
matic Sanction was practically confirmed. By the 
Peace of Aachen (1748) the possession of Silesia 
was again guaranteed to Frederick. 

The Seven Years 3 War. — Maria Theresia, sus- 
pecting that Frederick meditated mutilating the 
Austrian monarchy a second time, and desirous of 



FREDERICK II, THE GREAT 189 

humiliating Prussia and recovering Silesia, believed 
that the hour had now come. Aware of the inten- 
tention of the Empress, Frederick II sent her a 
summons to disarm. The answer not being satis- 
factory, Frederick at the head of 60,000 men 
swooped down upon Saxony without a declaration 
of war and marched to Dresden, which he entered 
without opposition. The intention was to enter 
Bohemia at once and crush the Austrians before 
they had time to concentrate their forces. But 
Augustus III took up a strong position on the river 
Pirna, appealed to Austria for aid, and brought 
Frederick's advance to a stop. An Austrian army 
under Marshal Browne was sent to the relief of the 
Saxons, Frederick met the Austrians just within the 
borders of Bohemia, and fought the drawn battle of 
Lobositz, after which Marshal Browne continued 
his march as if nothing had happened. But he could 
not save the Saxons. They had failed to effect the 
junction agreed upon and were forced to capitulate. 
Augustus III was allowed to retire to Poland. 
Saxony had suffered terribly, but her resistance had 
' saved Austria. Frederick's intended campaign had 
proved a failure; he was compelled to winter in 
Dresden. Meanwhile Austria, France, and Russia 
could perfect their coalition. A treaty for the par- 
tition of some of Prussia's provinces was signed 
by the three Powers in the spring of 1757. Sweden 



190 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

joined the league as the ally of France, but her part 
in the war was unimportant. The Empire declared 
the invasion of Saxony as a breach of the imperial 
peace and formally declared war. Besides Hanover 
and Brunswick, only a few minor princes continued 
in alliance with Frederick. Thus the Seven Years' 
War meant for Germany a civil war. 

To get the start of the enemy, Frederick, early 
in 1757, entered Bohemia. Before Prague he de- 
feated the Austrians in a bloody battle. The Aus- 
trians lost their best general, Marshal Browne, and 
13,000 men. The Prussians lost 12,500 men and 
their old hero, Marshal Schwerin. The siege and 
bombardment of Prague by 50,000 Prussians gave 
Marshal Daun time to march to its relief. Frede- 
rick went to meet him and found him encamped on 
the heights of Kolin. After seven unsuccessful at- 
tacks the King was obliged to retreat in disorder. 
The retreat turned into a rout, when, to avenge 
their country, three Saxon cavalry regiments 
charged through the broken ranks of the Prussian 
infantry. The loss of the battle meant the loss of 
the campaign. Frederick was compelled to raise 
the siege of Prague and to evacuate Bohemia. He 
returned to Saxony with 70,000 of the 117,000 
with which he had commenced the campaign. 

The Russians had entered East Prussia under 
Apraxin and won a victory (at Grossjagerndorf). 



FREDERICK II, THE GREAT 191 

Whilst the Austrians in slow advances conquered 
part of Silesia and took Breslau, General Hadik 
made a dashing raid into the heart of Prussia, en- 
tered Berlin, and raised contributions in city and 
country. 

Before the end of March, 100,000 French in two 
divisions crossed the Rhine, occupied Cleve, and 
marched upon Hanover, plundering and destroying 
the property of friend and foe alike. Eight days 
after the battle of Kolin, Marshal d'Estrees de- 
feated the Duke of Cumberland at Hastenbeck on 
the Weser. Cumberland abandoned Hanover and 
Brunswick to the invaders, never stopping in his 
retreat till he had reached the fortress of Stade 
near the mouth of the Elbe. 

The position of Frederick was now precarious. 
The French were masters in North Germany west 
of the Elbe. The Russians stood in East Prussia. 
The Swedes threatened Pomerania. The Austrians 
advanced in Silesia. In Central Germany, 40,000 
French under Soubise joined the 20,000 imperial 
troops for the purpose of liberating Saxony. Fred- 
erick never lost his presence of mind or relaxed his 
efforts to conquer the increasing difficulties. He 
first defeated the French at Rossbach, then turned 
to Silesia and completely routed the Austrians in the 
battle of Leuthen. The Russians he met at Zorn- 
dorf and defeated them in this, the bloodiest battle 



192 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

of the war. Frederick then hastened to Saxony, 
where his brother, Prince Henry, was confronting 
Marshal Daun and the army of the Empire. It 
took the wary Daun a month before deciding on a 
battle. At Hochkirch he espied his chance. He 
assailed Frederick's camp in a night attack. The 
excellent discipline of the Prussians prevented a 
panic; but they had to retreat with a loss of 3 gen- 
erals, 9,000 men, and 100 cannon. Marshal Daun 
failed to reap the fruit of his victory. ' He allowed 
Frederick to reinforce himself, to evade the Aus- 
trian army, and to clear Silesia of the enemy. In 
the summer of the following year (1759) General 
Laudon effected a junction with the Russian army 
which occupied the heights of Kunersdorf near 
Frankfort on the Oder. The King was badly de- 
feated, barely saving his own life. Stupefied by 
this disaster, he resigned the command into the 
hands of his brother Henry. When the news of 
Kunersdorf arrived, Dresden capitulated to the Aus- 
trians, and was henceforth lost to Frederick. The 
King, however, shook off his despair when he saw 
the allies neglecting to use their victory, the Rus- 
sians and Austrians quarreling amongst themselves, 
Marshal Daun remaining in stolid inactivity, and 
the Russians, in expectation of the death of their 
Empress, marching back into Poland. 

Desirous of concluding the campaign with a vie- 



FREDERICK II, THE GREAT 193 

tory, Frederick sent an army into Saxony to re- 
inforce his brother Henry and to reconquer Dres- 
den. The result was, that Marshal Daun sur- 
rounded a Prussian corps at Maxen, and captured 
nine generals, five hundred officers and 12,000 of 
the line. To prevent the union of the Austrians and 
Russians, Frederick, who was tracked by two Aus- 
trian armies under Daun and Lacy, marched from 
Saxony into Silesia, where Laudon awaited him, 
while the Russians crossed the Oder. With his 
usual rapidity he attacked Laudon, and inflicted the 
first defeat on the brave general at Liegnitz, before 
the two other armies came up to join him. Frede- 
rick thereupon sent an exaggerated report of the vic- 
tory to Prince Henry, intended to be intercepted by 
the Russians. The latter took the bait and recrossed 
the Oder. Frederick closed the campaign of the 
year with the victory of Torgau over Daun. 

The campaign of the following year was one of 
marches and maneuvers without a single pitched 
battle. Prussia was exhausted, one half of her ter- 
ritories in the hands of the enemy. But the death 
of Elizabeth of Russia saved Frederick and his 
kingdom. Her successor, Peter III, an ardent ad- 
mirer of Frederick, concluded with him not only the 
Peace of Petersburg, but also an offensive and de- 
fensive alliance. By the former he restored all 
the conquered territories to Prussia ; by the latter he 



194 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

recalled the troops from the Austrian camp and or- 
dered them to join the Prussian army. 

On February 16, 1763, peace was concluded be- 
tween Great Britain, France, and Spain. The al- 
tered circumstances left Austria to face Prussia 
alone, and led to a treaty of peace signed in the 
Saxon castle of Hubertsburg. Frederick retained 
Silesia and Glatz and evacuated Saxony. In addi- 
tion Prussia promised to cast her vote in the im- 
perial election for Archduke Joseph, the son of 
Maria Theresia. Saxony, restored to the state be- 
fore the war, was included in the peace. The Seven 
Years' War made Prussia a rival of Austria in 
Germany about equal in strength and one of the 
Great Powers of Europe. 



XXIX 

GERMANY IN THE DUST 

The French Revolution found a disrupted German 
Empire, whose people, especially those on the Rhine, 
were filled with cosmopolitan ideas, offering a fertile 
soil for the propagation of the revolutionary doc- 
trines conveyed by the slogan " Liberty, Equality, 
Fraternity.' ' In vain did the French emigrants ask 
the cool-headed Emperor Leopold II (i 790-1 792) 
to intercede in their behalf and restore the old or- 
der in France. Under his successor, Francis II 
(1792- 1 806), the revolutionists themselves com- 
pelled the so-called Coalition Wars. Austria and 
Prussia marched together to France in the autumn 
of 1792, but unnerved by mutual jealousy, they re- 
treated in the Champagne. Without any resistance 
the French invaded the territory of the Rhine. In 
1793 the European War commenced, in which the 
Empire also took part. At first the allies were suc- 
cessful, but soon the jealousies of the two German 
Powers stirred anew. Prussia, in 1795, concluded 
the separate peace treaty of Basle with the French 
Republic and assented to the cession of the left 

195 



196 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

bank of the Rhine. Austria put forth new efforts, 
but was finally forced to yield in the peace of Campo 
Formio (1797). The Empire, after the failure of 
peace negotiations and after a new war had been 
lost at Marengo and Hohenlinden, assented to the 
adjustments at Luneville (1801). The Rhine was 
established as the boundary between France and 
Germany, and the Adige as the boundary between 
Austria and Italy. The special proposals for indem- 
nifications were drawn up by a Deputation of Dele- 
gates of the Empire. The actual work of dismem- 
berment was done by Napoleon, Alexander of Rus- 
sia, and the King of Prussia. The shameful nego- 
tiations lasted more than two years, during which 
the ambassadors of German princes and princelings 
haunted the antechamber of the First Consul and 
bribed French ambassadors and secretaries to ob- 
tain additional allotments of land. It was chiefly 
ecclesiastical territory and free cities that were sac- 
rificed to the greed of both Catholic and Protestant 
princes. The Catholic estates were robbed of 
1,719 square miles and over 3,100,000 inhabitants. 
Of forty-eight free imperial cities only six were 
spared. As a rule the indemnified princes gained 
more than they had lost in the two Coalition Wars. 
These transactions practically put an end to the 
Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. 
A violent religious persecution now broke out. 



GERMANY IN THE DUST 197 

Many rich abbeys, because of their age and history, 
enjoyed a high reputation as centres of learning, 
preserving the light of religion among the people. 
With brutal force they were secularized, especially 
in the territories of southern Germany. The 
Church was robbed. She was unable to raise the 
most necessary funds for divine service, the care of 
the poor, and for the instruction of her children. It 
is true, that according to the Imperial Treaty 
(" Reichsrecess ") of Luneville the princes had to 
provide for these necessities ; it is true, that they had 
assumed the duty of endowing the cathedrals prop- 
erly and lastingly; but they did not adhere to these 
terms. Sixteen years after the treaty not one 
cathedral had been endowed; the destitute dioceses 
were still without bishops ; colleges founded and en- 
dowed by Catholics were changed into Protestant in- 
stitutions, others were closed. The universities 
fared no better. Catholic learning was in disfavor. 
The State took charge of the administration of all 
public welfare institutions, turned Catholic hospitals 
and poor-houses into nonsectarian, or rather, Prot- 
estant ones. All that was left to the Church was a 
small number of endowments, but even these were 
looked upon as state property and administered by 
state officials. 

Thus the years 1802 and 1803 witnessed the de- 
struction of all that Boniface, Germany's great bene- 



198 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

factor, had painstakingly built up. That short space 
of time saw the utter annihilation of all which pious 
zeal and renunciation of many centuries had saved 
up by self-sacrifice. The venerable halls were closed 
in which youthful Germans desirous of learning 
had learned from the lips of enthusiastic teachers 
those truths which alone can redeem the world and 
which had made the German people and Empire a 
credit to the Middle Ages. The Protestant his- 
torian Heinrich Leo summarizes his judgment re- 
garding the secularization in the following words : 
" Germany has never experienced a morally lower 
degradation than in those days; nay, in one respect 
we may say that it was lower than the moral degra- 
dation of France during the Revolution." 

By the secularization one of the main props of 
the old Empire broke down, and so, as early as 1804, 
Francis II adopted the title of Emperor of Austria. 
The Peace of Pressburg (Dec. 26, 1805), after 
Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz, gave the death- 
blow to the German Empire. Alongside of Austria 
and Prussia a number of sovereign states were 
created, strong enough to perpetuate Germany's par- 
tition, and weak enough to perpetuate the hegemony 
of France : the kingdoms of Bavaria and Wurttem- 
berg, the grandduchies of Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, 
etc. All the German states except Austria, Prussia, 
Brunswick, and electoral Hesse seceded from the 



GERMANY IN THE DUST 199 

Empire and formed the Confederacy of the Rhine 
(July 12, 1806) under the protection and vassalage 
of Napoleon. The Confederation had to furnish 
the Emperor an army of 63,000 men. Francis II 
laid down the German imperial crown. In the same 
year Prussia's power was broken on the battle fields 
of Jena and Auerstadt. The Peace of Tilsit ( 1807) 
took away from King Frederick William III ( 1 797— 
1840) all lands west of the Elbe; in Westphalia 
and Berg ruled royal princes of the Bonaparte 
dynasty. The complete throwing down of Austria 
(1809) raised Napoleon to the zenith of his power. 
Only his unhappy campaign against Russia (18 12) 
made the wars of liberation possible for Germany. 



XXX 

THE WARS OF LIBERATION 

The treaty of the Peace of Tilsit not only de- 
prived Prussia of all her lands between the Rhine 
and Elbe, but an almost insurmountable war in- 
demnification was imposed and strong French garri- 
sons were placed in her towns and cities. The 
burden seemed unbearable. Sorrows and cares lay 
heavy upon the King and his noble consort. But 
now, in misfortune, the true love of the people for 
their ruler manifested itself. When the royal pair, 
who had. fled to Konigsberg after the fatal battles 
of Jena and Auerstadt and then to Memel, arrived 
again in Berlin in 1809 with the royal children, they 
were accorded a most hearty and touching recep- 
tion by all classes of the people. 

In the midst of the greatest anxieties Frederick 
William III succeeded in carrying out beneficial im- 
provements throughout his country. In this task 
Minister von Stein and General Scharnhorst were 
his ablest and most devoted advisers. Every sub- 
ject was made to feel that, he was free and inde- 
pendent, even the peasant and common citizen. Up 

200 



THE WARS OF LIBERATION 201 CA 

**> 

to that time most peasants had been hereditary sub- '" 

jects of their landlords, i.e., they did not own their ' 
fields, but only had the use of them and in return 



had to render heavy services (Frondienste) to the 
overlord, or had to pay taxes in the form of corn 
and money. Without the permission of the over- ^ x ZJ ft 
lord neither they nor their children were free to ac- % 
cept service elsewhere. The King abolished the ^^ 

serfdom of the peasants : by this act about two-thirds 
of the population obtained unrestrained personal ^->f-* 

liberty. As a result of the new municipal charters 
•the municipal corporations (Stadtgemeinden) ob- 
tained the right to manage their property and all 0^ c -V- 
municipal affairs independently. For that purpose,,^Q ^^^ 
they chose aldermen from among their number, andv^ 



the latter chose the burgomaster. Thus the right / * <•* { 



of free citizenship was bestowed upon all. 



In order to increase the military efficiency of his^ 
state, Frederick William III introduced a system^; *w 
of conscription. Heretofore the army had consisted^ , 
of mercenary troops. Henceforth every able-V ' ^ 



mercenary troops. Henceforth every able-V^ 



--■^ 






bodied Prussian man served his time in the army. 
- As no more than 42,000 men were permitted to be 
in the Prussian army, these 42,000, after they were 
drilled, were discharged and replaced by others. In 
this manner by the year 18 13 Prussia had an army (L/tQ 
of over 200,000 well trained men. — * ~S 

In the terrible disaster which befell Napoleon in 



-a 






202 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

1812, Europe saw the judgment of God, and the 
German people rose in daring enthusiasm to regain 
their liberty. Frederick William III, after making 
a treaty with the Emperor of Russia, declared war 
on France, and then issued his " Proclamation to 
My People," in which he called upon his subjects 
for the last decisive battle for the liberation of their 
country. Poets, like Korner, Arndt, and Schenken- 
dorf wrote magnificent patriotic songs by which the 
courage and enthusiasm of the people were awakened 
and increased. Youths and men, rich and poor, 
gladly took up arms and went forth to war under 
the motto : " With God for King and Country." 
The whole country hastened to make voluntary offer- 
ings; they gave money, jewelry, horses, clothing, 
and provisions. As a reward for acts of valor in 
this war the King founded the order of the Iron 
Cross. 

Soon also Austria, Sweden, and England joined 
the alliance against Napoleon. The latter had 
formed a new army in France and went to meet 
the allies. The Prussian general Bulow won a vic- 
tory over a French army at Grossbeeren and Den- 
newitz; Bliicher defeated the French near the Katz- 
bach in the plain of Wahlstatt. The decisive battle 
of the war took place near Leipsic on Oct. 16 and 
18, 1813. Since nearly all nations of Europe were 
represented in the fighting armies, it is called the 



THE WARS OF LIBERATION 203 

Battle of Nations. More than 300,000 men of the 
allies were opposed to 200,000 Frenchmen. On 
either side great bravery was displayed. In the 
thick of the fight 10,000 Saxons suddenly went over 
to their German brethren, turning their cannon 
against the French. In spite of all his art and dar- 
ing the great Napoleon was finally crushed beneath 
the overwhelming numbers of his enraged enemies 
and his power broken in this great battle of nations 
struggling for liberation. 

With the remnants of his army Napoleon hurried 
across the Rhine, never again to set his foot on 
German soil. The Confederacy of the Rhine was 
dissolved and its members joined the allies. The 
latter offered Napoleon a peace which would have 
secured the Alps and the Rhine as the boundaries of 
France. Napoleon rejected the offer and obtained 
from the Senate a new levy of 300,000 men. Under 
these circumstances the allies invaded France with 
200,000 men. Schwarzenberg and BKicher de- 
feated Napoleon at La Rothier. But when the vic- 
tors separated to facilitate provisioning, Napoleon 
' with astonishing boldness hurled himself on the 
forces of Blikher and defeated him in four battles. 
Then turning like a flash upon the main army un- 
der Schwarzenberg, he won the two victories of 
Nangis and Montereau. Again the allies offered 
peace at Chatillon, but emboldened by his successes 



204 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Napoleon raised his demands beyond the endurance 
of the Powers. 

In the progress of the war Napoleon was de- 
feated at Laon by Blucher, and at Arcis by 
Schwarzenberg. Whilst the Emperor conceived the 
plan of throwing himself in the rear of the enemy 
and raising the populace, the allies marched directly 
upon Paris. The marshals bravely defended the 
city for a few days, but, the southern outworks 
being stormed, the city capitulated and, on March 
31, the allied monarchs and their armies entered 
the capital of France. Napoleon was deprived of 
his crown and banished to the Isle of Elba. France 
ceded the conquered lands to Germany. 

In the following year Napoleon secretly left the 
Island of Elba and landed in France. Everywhere 
he was. received with jubilation and presently he 
entered Paris. At once the allies took up arms 
against the disturber of the peace. . This time the 
battle was fought in Belgium. On June 14, Napo^ 
leon forced back the Prussians under Ziethen in the 
engagement of Charleroi. On the 15th, Napoleon 
defeated Blucher at Ligny. It was Napoleon's last 
victory. He then turned his attention to Welling- 
ton, who was encamped at Waterloo, near Brussels. 
The afternoon of the 18th saw Wellington's troops, 
though still holding their ground, suffering so heav- 



THE WARS OF LIBERATION 205 

ily that the day was saved only by Blucher's timely 
arrival. The two armies uniting completely de- 
feated, routed, and scattered the army of Napoleon, 
who withdrew from the battlefield in a dazed condi- 
tion surrounded by a square of his faithful guards. 
The allied armies pursued the French and entered 
Paris for the second time. Napoleon was again 
deposed and exiled to the far-away rocky Island of 
St. Helena in the Atlantic. France had to pay enor- 
mous war indemnifications, make restitution of all 
the stolen art treasures, and, in addition, to support 
an army of the allies in her frontier fortresses for 
three long years. 

At the Congress of Vienna Prussia received its 
former possessions in Westphalia and new terri- 
tories on the left bank of the Rhine, the greater part 
of Saxony and the smaller part of Warsaw with the 
city of Danzig. The Holy Roman Empire was re- 
placed by a loose Confederacy, which secured the 
semblance of unity, but allowed almost complete in- 
dependence to the separate States. It numbered 
thirty-eight members, among them the Emperor of 
Austria for his German provinces, the Kings of 
Prussia, of Hanover, of Saxony, of Bavaria, of 
Wurttemberg; a number of minor sovereign princes, 
and the free cities of Frankfort,, Liibeck, Hamburg, 
and Bremen. The leadership, naturally, fell to 



2o6 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Austria. The latter recovered her Italian posses- 
sions, the Kingdoms of Dalmatia and Illyria, Salz- 
burg, the Tyrol, and Galicia. 

The Decrees of Vienna regulated for the next 
forty years the relations of the European States. 
The principles which guided the deliberations at 
Vienna did not differ much from the policy of the 
Revolution or of Napoleon. The governments that 
prided themselves on their legitimacy respected 
neither historical rights nor the just demands of the 
patriotic people, who had voluntarily taken up arms 
to free the Fatherland. The Catholic Church in 
Germany obtained no justice or restitution for the 
gigantic robbery committed in 1803. 



XXXI 

A PERIOD OF MONARCHICAL REACTION 

During the long period of peace following the 
Wars of Liberation the desire for unified national 
existence grew, despite reactionary measures passed 
by the Confederacy at the behest of Metternich. At 
the beginning the universities were the foremost sup- 
porters and defenders of this unity. The people, 
too, began to demand a share in the government, but 
only a number of the small and middle-sized states 
permitted constitutions and representation, viz., Nas- 
sau (1814-15), Sachsen- Weimar (1816), then the 
south German states Bavaria and Baden (18 18), 
Wurttemberg (1819), and, under the goad of the 
July Revolution (1830) also Kurhessen, Sachsen, 
Braunschweig, and Hanover, while the two great 
Powers frowned upon these liberal measures. 
Prussia was busy amalgamating her heterogeneous 
states into a unified commonwealth and developing 
the customs-union (" Zollverein") founded in 
18 19, which was destined to make a commercial unit 
of Prussia, central and southern Germany. In 
1834 the German Customs-Union was established 

207 



208 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

in spite of Austria's opposition. This Customs- 
Union aroused and strengthened the spirit of co- 
hesion among the different peoples; it, therefore, 
laid the foundation for the future union of Germany 
under Prussia's leadership. Now for the first time 
the exertions of the commercial classes during the 
preceding century were abundantly rewarded, and 
Germany regained the financial ability to undertake 
large commercial enterprises. As Prussia, like Aus- 
tria, refused to grant her subjects a constitution, the 
customs-union between Prussia and the southern 
states, owing to differences on politico-economic 
questions resulting chiefly from Prussia's mon- 
archical reaction, soon began to weaken. 

The position of the Catholic Church also became 
critical. The men who had roused the enthusiasm 
of the nation in the Wars of Liberation, had to make 
room for narrow-minded bureaucrats. Prominent 
patriots, like Joseph Gbrres, the greatest publicist 
of Germany, whom Napoleon had called the Fifth 
Power of Europe, were subjected to the most con- 
temptible forms of persecution. The territorial as- 
semblies established in the Congress of Vienna were 
allowed no power or influence. The Diet of Frank- 
fort became a political machine in the hands of Aus- 
tria and Prussia for the promotion of their dynastic 
interests. The Catholic Church well-nigh banished 
from public life, her freedom of action circum- 



MONARCHICAL REACTION 209 

scribed, her property, monasteries, and schools con- 
fiscated, betrayed by some of her own prelates and 
priests, and paralyzed by the indifference of the 
masses, eked out a precarious existence as the hand- 
maid of the State, a sort of higher police institution. 
Especially in Prussia, the ministers of the crown, 
in their aim of protestantizing its Catholic subjects, 
carried into every branch of the administration the 
pernicious principle that the King is the source of 
all rights, political and religious, for Protestants and 
Catholics alike. 

Whilst the oppression of the Church emanated 
from those in high stations of life, a revival started 
out from the very heart of the people. In 1800, 
Count Leopold von Stolberg embraced the Catholic 
faith. His sterling character and great work, 
" History of Religion," attracted widespread atten- 
tion to his conversion. Protestants of the highest 
standing in literature and art (Overbeck, Cornelius, 
later Frederick von Schlegel, Gf rorer, etc. ) followed 
his example. The unmeasured attacks made on the 
Catholic Church and her new converts during the 
jubilee of the " Reformation," 18 17, roused the 
Catholics from their torpor and called forth ener- 
getic refutations in books, pamphlets, and periodi- 
cals. Gorres, with his powerful style and cutting 
irony, stood in the front ranks of the defenders of 
the faith. The followers of the Romantic School 



210 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

in Germany, like Ozanam in France, and Walter 
Scott in England, brought about a fairer and truer 
appreciation of the Catholic Middle Ages. But no 
event had a greater influence on the Catholic re- 
vival of Germany than the "Cologne affair" of 
1837. A cabinet order in force in Silesia, under 
which children of mixed marriages were to be 
educated in the religion of their father, was extended 
in 1825 to the Rhine provinces and Westphalia. 
The Catholic clergy refused to comply. At the re- 
quest of the government the bishops asked for in- 
structions from the Holy See. Pius VIII, in an 
Apostolic Brief, gave the only possible decision, that 
children of mixed marriages were to be educated 
in the Catholic religion, a decision which Gregory 
XVI confirmed. Thereupon Ferdinand von Spie- 
gel, Archbishop of Cologne, and three of his suf- 
fragans, without any knowledge on the part of the 
Holy See, entered into a secret conspiracy with the 
Prussian government practically to ignore the Papal 
Brief. The Bishop of Treves, one of the signers 
of the secret convention, repented on his deathbed 
and informed the Pope of the plot. Minister Bun- 
sen, who had represented the government in this dis- 
honest transaction, had the effrontery to deny the 
fact. Archbishop Spiegel was succeeded by Clement 
August von Droste-Vischering, a prelate of unim- 
peachable loyalty to his duty and the Church. As 



MONARCHICAL REACTION 211 

soon as he discovered the secret convention, he sent 
a declaration to Berlin, that he would strictly carry 
out the Brief of Pius VIII. The government now 
dropped the mask, and on November 20, 1837, ar- 
rested the fearless Archbishop with a great display 
of military force and conveyed him to the fortress 
of Minden. He was charged with violating his 
engagements with the government, undermining the 
laws, and maintaining connections with two revolu- 
tionary parties. The following year Archbishop 
Dunin of Gnesen was arrested for the same fidelity 
to the laws of the Church, and confined in the for- 
tress of Kolberg. 

The intense excitement caused in Germany and in 
the entire Catholic world by the arrest of the Arch- 
bishop of Cologne was in itself a clear indication 
how much Catholic sentiment among the people had 
grown since the days of Napoleon. Gregory XVI, 
in December, 1837, delivered a powerful allocution 
which was received with enthusiasm by the Catho- 
lics of Europe and America. The remaining two 
bishops who had signed the secret convention with- 
drew their signatures. The Prussian government 
tried to justify its measures, but the Holy See pub- 
lished documents which allowed of no contradiction. 
The Plenary Council of Baltimore sent words of 
admiration and encouragement to the "new Con- 
fessors of the Faith." Joseph Gorres, in his 



212 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

" Athanasius " and his " Triarier," triumphantly 
refuted the arguments of the government and the 
anti-Catholic press. The government was defeated 
along the whole line. The Catholic practice as out- 
lined in the Brief of Leo XII was everywhere re- 
stored. 

When the large-minded Frederick William IV 
(1840— 1861) succeeded his father, the Archbishop 
of Gnesen, previously released, was at once allowed 
to return to his see. The Archbishop of Cologne 
was restored to full liberty, and by a public letter 
of the King acquitted of all charges which the for- 
mer government had raised against him. To facili- 
tate the work of peace, Gregory XVI persuaded 
the Archbishop to accept the bishop of Speyer, after- 
wards Cardinal Geissel, as coadjutor and adminis- 
trator of the diocese with the right of succession, 
whilst Msgr. Droste remained Archbishop in right 
and fact. The venerable prelate by his work on 
" Peace between Church and State," and Frederick 
William IV by his generous gifts for the restora- 
tion of the Cathedral of Cologne, sealed the re- 
conciliation. A pilgrimage of 1,500,000 persons to 
the Holy Robe of Christ in the city of Treves, 1844, 
was a splendid proof of the growing devotion of the 
people. Fresh troubles arose, such as Ronge's Ger- 
man-Catholic revolt, small in number of adherents 
but vehement in malice, the Protestant Alliance, 



MONARCHICAL REACTION 213 

new encroachments on the rights of the Church by 
the officialdom of Prussia; but the Catholics were 
now prepared for effective resistance, and the re- 
vival of 1837 bore its fruit throughout the century. 



XXXII 

FREDERICK WILLIAM IV — THE YEAR 1 848 

When the liberty-loving King Frederick William 
IV ascended the throne, the hope for -a stronger 
political unity of Germany seemed about to be ful- 
filled and the granting of a Prussian constitution not 
far off. But fearing the inevitable clash with Aus- 
tria, the King openly declared his repugnance for a 
written constitution. 

The Parisian " February Revolution " set the ball 
a-rolling. On all sides popular demonstrations 
voiced the sentiments for a German representative 
parliament; trial by jury, freedom of the press, the 
right of assembly and to bear arms were all de- 
manded. On March 15th serious disturbances be- 
gan. A few days after the King promised to work 
for a regeneration of Germany by popular repre- 
sentation. An immense mass of people surged to- 
ward the palace, ostensibly to thank the King. Pro- 
voked by the outcries and insults hurled against 
them, the soldiers fired two shots. With the cry of 
treason, the people scattered in every direction. In 
an incredibly short time the city was covered with 

214 



FREDERICK WILLIAM IV 215 

barricades. A murderous fight ensued from street 
to street. The incensed military forces, 14,000 
strong with 36 cannon, gradually succeeded, with 
great labor, in destroying the barricades. Yet on 
the morning of the 10th the troops, upon an order 
of the King, evacuated the city. The people were 
now masters of the situation. Frederick William 
IV was forced to stand bare-headed on the balcony 
of his palace as the funeral procession of the men 
whom his soldiers had killed at the barricades 
marched by. His brother William, who later be- 
came Emperor, had to flee to England, the common 
refuge of Louis Philip and Metternich and other 
statesmen. The King granted all the popular de- 
mands. The prisons were opened. A national 
guard was organized. For a time liberal ministers 
changed in quick succession amid scenes of growing 
anarchy. 

In Austria, several insurrections of the people 
deprived of all political liberty, led to Ferdinand's 
abdication in favor of his nephew, Francis Joseph I, 
the still ruling head of the Austro-Hungarian mon- 
archy. The Hungarian Diet refused to acknowl- 
edge Ferdinand's abdication. Only with the help 
of a Russian army were the Austrians able to defeat 
the Hungarians. Hungary was completely merged 
with Austria and its ancient institutions obliterated. 

The German people now turned their eyes to the 



216 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

National Assembly, which had meanwhile convened 
at Frankfort. Its aim was to devise a national con- 
stitution which would harmonize the demands of the 
people with the interests of the various governments. 
The Assembly was composed of 586 members, di- 
vided into three parties : the Conservative Right, to 
which the Catholics von Radowitz, Prince Lichnow- 
ski, Dollinger, August Reichensperger, and von Ket- 
teler belonged, the Liberal Centre, and the Republi- 
can Left. The Assembly at Frankfort elected Arch- 
duke John of Austria Administrator of the Empire 
with a responsible ministry of his own. The old 
Confederate Diet recognized this provisional gov- 
ernment and then dissolved. The majority of the 
members of the Assembly were Monarchists of 
widely diverging opinions. The minority advocated 
a Republican Confederation based on the sovereignty 
of the people. The Assembly frittered away its 
time and talents in fruitless oratorical flights, for it 
could define its relationship neither to the different 
governments nor to the two Constituent Assemblies 
sitting at the same time in Vienna and in Berlin. 

The helplessness of the new National Adminis- 
tration at home and abroad became apparent in the 
affair of Schleswig-Holstein. The two duchies had 
risen against Denmark, March, 1848, formed a pro- 
visional government, and sent deputies to Frankfort. 



FREDERICK WILLIAM IV 217 

Prussian troops under General Wrangel were sent 
to their aid and gained some successes against the 
Danes. But the losses inflicted on German com- 
merce by the Danish blockade and the remonstrances 
of Russia and England, induced Prussia to conclude 
a rather humiliating truce. The provisional gov- 
ernment and the Assembly at Frankfort, in spite 
of their angry protests, had to bow to the accom- 
plished fact. The truce created widespread dis- 
satisfaction in Germany. In Frankfort the people, 
excited by democratic agitators, made an attempt to 
•overthrow the Parliament and proclaim the Repub- 
lic. Prince Lichnowski and General Auerwald 
were murdered by the mob. St. Paul's Church, 
where the sessions were held, was saved only by the 
arrival of troops from Mayence. Thus both the 
Administrator and the Assembly gradually lost their 
authority. 

The Assembly of Frankfort finished the Consti- 
tution of the German Empire in 1849. But only 
smaller states were willing to accept it. The ques- 
tion as to who should be elected Emperor rent the 
Parliament into an Austrian and a Prussian faction. 
A delegation representing a bare majority offered 
the imperial crown to the King of Prussia. Fred- 
erick William publicly declared he would accept the 
crown only with the free consent of all the German 



218 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

states ; privately, however, he held the Frankfort As- 
sembly and its new crown in the utmost contempt. 
Thereupon so many deputies left Frankfort or were 
called off that the Parliament became a rump of 
radicals. This failure of the new Constitution was 
seized upon by the agitators of the international 
Revolution as a pretext for new insurrections in 
favor of a German republic. The May days of 
1849 saw Republican insurrections in Saxony, the 
Palatinate, Baden, and in the Rhine provinces. 
Many of the revolutionist leaders were shot, others 
escaped to Switzerland and America (General Sigel, 
Karl Schurz). 

Prussian statesmen now tried another way of ar- 
riving at a German Union, this time to the exclusion 
of Austria. Prussia concluded an alliance with 
Saxony and Hanover and some minor states. Aus- 
tria, on the other hand, supported by the Kings of 
Bavaria and Wurttemberg, and backed by the Em- 
peror of Russia, demanded the restoration of the 
German Confederacy of 181 5. For a moment it 
appeared as if the question of the German Union 
would lead to war between Austria and Prussia. 
But in a conference of the representatives of the 
two Powers at Olmiitz (1850), Prussia yielded to 
all the demands of Austria. Schleswig-Holstein, 
which had, unaided, continued its hopeless war for 
independence, was handed back to Denmark. The 



FREDERICK WILLIAM IV 219 

Conference of Dresden, 185 1, re-established the Ger- 
man Confederation of 18 15. 

The Catholic Church in Germany and Austria 
emerged from the Revolution with more power and 
freedom than she had enjoyed for a century. In 
October, 1848, the German Episcopate, for the first 
time in the nineteenth century, united for common 
action in the Conference of Wiirzburg under the 
presidency of Archbishop Geissel. The govern- 
ments could not help recognizing in the Church a 
bulwark of law and order. The absolute state, as 
it had existed before 1848, was no more. The fun- 
damental laws which survived the Assemblies of 
Frankfort and Berlin, guaranteed to the Catholic 
Church, as to all other denominations, the free man- 
agement of her own affairs, and the independent 
possession and administration of the funds destined 
for religious, educational, and charitable purposes. 
Ecclesiastical elections and communication with 
Rome were freed from the " placet " and the super- 
vision of the State. In the management of the 
schools a tolerable modus vivendi between the 
'Church and the State was found. The Right of 
Association called forth numerous religious societies 
and opened Germany to the religious orders. 
Driven from Switzerland, the . Jesuits founded a 
province in Germany and began their career of 
popular missions throughout the country, which, 



220 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

while reviving the zeal of the Catholic masses, pre- 
pared them for fresh attacks, that twenty years later 
culminated in the " Kulturkampf." 

In Austria, the Emperor Francis Joseph I com- 
pleted the abrogation of the persecuting code of 
Joseph II and sealed this measure in 1855 by a con- 
cordat, in which the rights of the Holy See were 
fully recognized. 



XXXIII 

WILLIAM I — THE WARS OF 1 864 AND 1 866 

When Frederick William IV died without off- 
spring in 1 861, he was succeeded by his brother 
William I (1861-1888), who in the autumn of the 
year 1857 had assumed the royal authority in place 
of the enfeebled King. The first concern of the 
new King was to multiply his armed forces. Im- 
proved equipment was provided and diligent instruc- 
tions and unwearied exercises, too, helped to. train 
the men and make an efficient army. In this work 
he received the active cooperation of the minister of 
war, Roon. When the administration policy on 
Army Reforms (Separation of the Home Guards 
from the Line Troops, Three Years' Enlistment, 
and Increasing the Standing Army) came in con- 
flict with the representatives in the Reichstag, Bis- 
marck, the man of blood and iron, was given a seat 
in the cabinet and soon thereafter made its Presi- 
dent and Foreign Secretary (October 8, 1862). 
He successfully negotiated the. contest on popular 
representation. Stamping out a revolution in Po- 
land by a military treaty with Russia, he placed the 

221 



222 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Kingdom of Prussia on friendly terms with the 
Muskovite realm (1863). But it was Bismarck's 
chief aim to make Prussia supreme in Germany. 
To gain this end he thought a war with Austria de- 
sirable. But the new King and his family were op- 
posed to this project. Bismarck calculated that the 
surest means of embroiling the two dynasties would 
be an alliance between the two monarchs for the 
purpose of interfering in the affairs of Schleswig- 
Holstein. 

When Christian IX succeeded to the throne of 
Denmark (1863), he accepted a Constitution which 
incorporated Schleswig with Denmark. An incor- 
poration of Schleswig was clearly excluded by the 
agreement of 1852 between Austria, Prussia, and 
Denmark. Bismarck prevailed upon King William 
to conclude an alliance with Austria against Den- 
mark. The allied Powers demanded a repeal of the 
new Constitution. Upon Denmark's refusal, an 
Austro-Prussian army advanced into Schleswig, 
1864, whilst the troops of the German Confedera- 
tion occupied Holstein. The Danish army was 
beaten along the whole front and retired to the 
Diippel entrenchments. After a siege of seven 
weeks, the Prussians under the leadership of Fred- 
erick Charles, nephew of the King, took these 
trenches by storm. The Danish army fled to the 
Isle of Alsen. Again the Prussian army attacked 



WILLIAM I 223 

and captured the island. The Treaty of Peace was 
then negotiated at Vienna; Schleswig and Holstein 
together with Lauenburg being ceded to Prussia and 
Austria. Holstein was to be administered by Aus- 
tria, while Schleswig came under Prussian rule. 
Lauenburg was released by Austria for a money 
consideration and annexed to Prussia, 

Austria desired to strengthen the German Con- 
federacy, of which she was still the virtual head, 
by uniting Schleswig-Holstein with the Confederacy 
as a sovereign state under a native prince. Bis- 
marck, on the other hand, wanted Schleswig-Hol- 
stein for Prussia, and vigorously suppressed the 
movement. To intensify the friction, Prussia came 
forward with a proposal to reorganize the German 
Confederacy in such a manner as to destroy Aus- 
tria's preponderance in Germany. It was under 
these circumstances that Bismarck and La Marmora, 
Italy's shrewd and conscienceless prime minister, ar- 
ranged a secret offensive and defensive treaty of al- 
liance. By this compact Italy bound herself to de- 
clare war against Austria immediately after Prussia 
should have taken the initiative. 

While the negotiations for Schleswig-Holstein 
and the constitutional reform were in progress, Bis- 
marck assiduously left nothing undone to increase 
the tension and at the same time allayed the mis- 
givings of the excited King. Italy and a few North 



224 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

German states aligned themselves on the side of 
Prussia; with Austria stood Hanover, Electoral 
Hesse, Nassau, Saxony, Baden, Wiirttemberg, and 
Bavaria. When the Prussian troops marched into 
Hanover, Saxony and Hesse, the Saxon army and 
that of the Elector of Hesse had evacuated their 
territory without offering battle and had joined 
forces with the enemies of Prussia. The Han- 
overian army failed to escape, but was overtaken by 
the Prussians at Langensalza and forced to surren- 
der. These forces were simply disarmed and sent 
back to their own country. 

The occupation of Saxony had opened the way 
for the invasion of Bohemia, the chief seat of the 
war. The armies of the two Prussian princes, Fred- 
erick Charles and the Crown Prince, entered Bo- 
hemia without meeting with any resistance. A 
third army followed the Saxons, who were quitting 
their own country and seeking safety. by trying to 
effect a junction with the Austrians. Before the 
decisive battle was fought several Austrian corps 
separated from the main body had been defeated. 
Numbers, arms, and organization were against 
Benedict, the commander of the Austrian forces. 
The muzzle-loaders could not compete with the new 
Prussian needle-guns. Only Trautenau was an 
Austrian victory. The die was cast at Sadowa, 
leaving the Prussian arms victorious. 



WILLIAM I 225 

The more important effects of the war were that 
Prussia annexed Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, 
Hesse-Nassau, and the free city of Frankfort, that 
Austria recognized the dissolution of the German 
Federation and ceased to be a member of the Ger- 
man States. The Germanic countries north of the 
Main composed the North German Confederacy 
under Prussian leadership. The southern belt of 
states concluded offensive and defensive alliances 
with Prussia which really paved the way for the 
unifying work under Prussia's dominion. 
• The Constitution of the North German Confed- 
eracy went into effect on July 1, 1867, and was an 
example for the future German Empire {Reichs- 
tag, Bundesrath). The Confederation began with 
a common legislature, which was later taken over by 
the Empire, and culminated in the expansion of the 
Empire by the south German states seeking member- 
ship, i.e., the proclamation of the Constitution of the 
new Empire, December 31, 1870. 

The Habsburg monarchy was transformed into a 
modern constitutional state, and Hungary reconciled 
with Austria and the Habsburg dynasty, The two 
states were united in personal union, the Emperor 
of Austria being at the same time King of Hun- 
gary. Each of the states received its own Consti- 
tution, government, parliament, and ministry. The 
two parliaments annually choose a delegation of sixty 



226 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

members each, to legislate in matters of foreign 
policy, military administration, and imperial finance. 
The delegates meet alternately in Vienna and Buda- 
pest. 



/ 
XXXIV 

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR, 187O-187I 

Prussia's military successes and the rapidly near- 
ing unification of German states excited much envy 
and jealousy in France. In a war with Prussia, 
Napoleon III hoped to have new glory redound to 
his people, rising Prussia weakened, and the uni- 
fication of Germany blocked, his own prestige and 
power correspondingly enhanced. Last but not 
least he thought thereby to satisfy the war party, 
which had sprung up in France after the battle of 
Sadowa and was very insistent upon having the 
territory on the left bank of the Rhine restored to 
its rightful ( !) owner. 

The idea that the Rhine was the natural boundary 
of France had been kept alive by French statesmen, 
historians, poets, and the daily press ever since the 
fall of Napoleon I. A pretext for war was readily 
discovered. Spain had exiled her queen, Isabella, 
in 1868, and shortly after offered the crown to 
Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern. Forthwith the 
French government declared that it would never al- 
low a Hohenzollern prince to ascend the Spanish 

227 



228 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

throne. Prince Leopold, thereupon, rejected the 
proffered crown. 

Benedetti, the French ambassador in Berlin, de- 
manded of the King a disavowal that he would ever 
consent to a Hohenzollern prince accepting the Span- 
ish crown. The King of Prussia positively declined 
to comply with the ambassador's demands. After a 
few days, on July 19, 1870, the French declaration 
of war arrived in Berlin. 

Napoleon calculated that he would simply have to 
measure up against Prussia and the minor states of 
the North German Confederation, but his reckon- 
ing was without the enemy, for as one man the 
whole of Germany rose up willing to fight against 
the disturber of the peace. Everywhere the 
" Watch on the Rhine " was sung. On August 2nd, 
450,000 German soldiers were at the French fron- 
tier in the narrow space between Landau and Treves. 
The German forces were divided into three parts — 
the right wing under Steinmetz stood at Coblenz, the 
center under Prince Frederick Charles was at 
Mayence, while the left wing under Crown Prince 
Frederick William rested on Mannheim. King 
William I was commander-in-chief, with the great 
strategist General von Moltke chief of the general 
staff. 

France found herself practically unprepared, her 
military departments in confusion, her fortresses 



THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 229 

weakly garrisoned and ill-provisioned. Of the 350,- 
000 troops of the line and the 100,000 " gardes mo- 
biles," which the regulations called for on paper, 
only 220,000 men and these not even fully equipped 
were sent to the front as eight army corps. A re- 
serve army of 300,000 was in course of formation. 
Napoleon was commander-in-chief, Marshal Le- 
boeuf chief of the general staff, Marshal MacMahon 
stood at Strassburg, Marshal Bazaine at Metz. 

On August 4, the Crown Prince, coming from 
Landau and Germersheim, crossed the frontier. At 
Weissenburg he encountered MacMahon and won 
the first engagement of the war. At Worth Mac- 
Mahon with 45,000 men made a gallant stand 
against the Crown Prince's 130,000, but was forced 
to fall back upon Chalons. On the day of the 
battle of Worth the French were also defeated at 
Spichern near Saarbriicken. The other German 
army also advanced, and the three armies rapidly 
carried the war into French territory. 

At Metz (Aug. 14-Aug, 18).— After the battle 
of Worth Napoleon invested Bazaine with chief 
command. His strategy intended that the remnants 
of MacMahon's forces effect a juncture with the new 
army forming in the strongly entrenched camp of 
Chalons. To thwart this, the Germans fought the 
next three battles in the neighborhood of Metz, at 
Neuilly, Vionville, and Gravelotte. At Gravelotte, 



230 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

King William, at the head of his 200,000 men with 
822 cannon, won a decisive victory over 150,000 
French supported by 550 cannon. For eight hours 
the fighting lasted, and 13,000 French and 19,000 
Germans fell in the bloody encounter. These bat- 
tles cut the French forces in two and enabled the 
Germans to surround the main army in and about 
Metz. This fortress had not sufficient provisions 
for so great an army and was soon in dire straits. 

Crown Prince Frederick William and a newly 
formed army under the Crown Prince of Saxony, 
advanced against MacMahon at Chalons. The lat- 
ter suddenly swerved northward, desperately at- 
tempting to reach Metz. Intelligence of this design 
allowed the King to anticipate and meet the condi- 
tion by deflecting his armies in the same direction. 
By forced marches he succeeded in occupying and 
holding the road to Metz against MacMahon and 
also in cutting off his retreat to Paris. In the rear 
of the French army lay Belgium. Thus hemmed in, 
MacMahon concentrated his forces at Sedan. Na- 
poleon III accompanied him. Not sensing the near- 
ness of the enemy, they encamped in a valley sur- 
rounded by hills; a veritable death trap it proved 
to be for the 140,000 French. The Germans, num- 
bering 250,000 men, approached on all sides and 
planted their batteries upon all the surrounding hills 
without arousing any apprehensions in the hearts of 



THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 231 

the French. The battle turned into a bloody mas- 
sacre by the German artillery. Thrice on that fatal 
day (Sept. 1) the heroic but unavailingly brave 
French army changed its commander. Early in the 
morning MacMahon had been wounded and yielded 
his command to Ducrot. Wimpffen succeeded Du- 
crot, and when French resistance was exhausted, at 
three o'clock, Napoleon himself ordered the white 
flag to be hoisted and handed his sword to William I. 

The following morning Napoleon drove over into 
the German lines. The surrender of the French 
army was signed by Moltke and Wimpffen. In a 
personal interview with Napoleon, William I as- 
signed Wilhelmshohe near Cassel as a residence for 
the captive Emperor. Of the French army 84,000 
men were marched off into Germany as prisoners of 
war; about 10,000 men who had crossed the fron- 
tier were disarmed in Belgium. The German 
armies not needed for the siege of Metz converged 
towards Paris. Henceforth the German military 
operations had the object of frustrating all attempts 
to raise the siege of Paris, whilst the objective of all 
-French army operations outside of Metz was the 
raising of the siege of Paris. 

After Napoleon had been taken prisoner of war, 
the Chamber of Deputies overthrew the Empire and 
proclaimed the Third Republic. The investment of 
Paris was completed on September 19. After a 



2$2 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

futile attempt to obtain peace without territorial sac- 
rifice, the new government established a delegation 
or branch government at Tours. With indefatig- 
able energy the delegation undertook to organize 
two provincial armies, the army of the Loire and the 
army of the North. The Germans continued to 
press the French armies wherever found. Toul and 
Strassburg fell in September, Orleans and other 
cities in October. But each of these disasters, and 
all together, palled before the decisive catastrophe, 
the fall of Metz, where provisions had given out on 
October 21. Six days later Marshal Bazaine sur- 
rendered the town and its forts, 1,300 guns and all 
the stores of war supplies, 173,000 French soldiers 
were made prisoners of war, while .3,000 officers 
were liberated on parole and 20,000 sick remained 
in the conquered town. 

The fall of Metz released 200,000 Germans for 
operations directed against the untried armies levied 
in the provinces. These French armies, drawn to- 
gether to relieve Paris, were beaten and scattered 
at Amiens and St. Quentin, Orleans and Le Mans. 
Meanwhile the defense of Paris was carried on with 
heroic bravery. The besieged troops essayed to 
break through the lines of the besieging army many 
times, but each time were driven back. The Pari- 
sians tenaciously held on until at last the effect of 
the heavy artillery of the Germans impressed itself 



THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 233 

on the morale of the defending soldiers and hunger 
raged among the civilian population and thus forced 
the surrender. 

The terms were signed January 28, 1871. All 
the forts surrounding and in Paris were surren- 
dered. The artillery on the city walls was dis- 
mounted. The troops in Paris were prisoners of 
war and were disarmed, save 12,000 men necessary 
to maintain public order. A war contribution of 
200 million francs was levied on the city. 

A truce afforded the time for an election and a 
meeting of the National Assembly, which was to de- 
cide the question of peace or war. The new Assem- 
bly met at Bordeaux and elected Thiers head of the 
Executive Department. It became his painful duty 
to arrange all the preliminaries of peace with the 
chancellor of the German Empire. The terms pro- 
vided for the cession of Alsace, with the exception 
of Belfort, and German Lorraine with Metz and 
Thionville, in all 4,700 square miles with one and a 
half million inhabitants, and the payment by France 
of a war indemnity of five milliards of francs (ap- 
-proximately $1,000,000,000) in three years; pay- 
ment to be secured by a German occupation of 
French territory. The preliminaries were ratified 
in the definitive Peace of Frankfort, May 10, 1871. 



XXXV 

THE NEW EMPIRE 

The Franco-Prussian War had at last brought 
political unity to the German people. Austria had 
been excluded from Germany, Prussia's economic 
superiority over the South had been established be- 
yond question. Bismarck's statesmanship and the 
political and military resources of Prussia had com- 
bined to bring about at last the realization of the 
New German Empire, which had been the dream of 
generations of German patriots. 

The initiative was taken by the Crown Prince 
Frederick. After the battle of Worth he advised 
the Kings of Southern Germany that a sufficient 
force was in the field " to coerce those who might re- 
sist the proposal of a German Empire." The next 
step was an agreement at Versailles by which the 
four Southern States of Germany formally joined 
the North German Confederacy. Thereupon Prince 
Bismarck asked the King of Bavaria to propose 
a revival of the imperial title to the rest of the Ger- 
man princes, with a hint that in his default others 
might be found to advance the proposal; the Diet, 

234 



THE NEW EMPIRE 235 

too, would be willing to put the motion. The King 
of Bavaria, in his letter of November 30, to King 
William at Versailles, expressed his confidence, that 
the President of the German Confederacy in his 
new dignity would exercise his rights in the name 
of the whole German Union and its princes, and for- 
mally proposed that the President of the Confed- 
eracy should assume the title of German Emperor. 
After all the sovereign States and the three free 
cities had signified their approval, the title of Ger- 
man Emperor was conferred on William I and his 
successors in the palace of Louis XIV at Versailles, 
January 18, 1871. 

The New German Empire has no legal connection 
with the old Roman Empire of the German Nation. 
Hence the time from 1806— 1871 was not an inter- 
regnum. The Empire is merely a continuation of 
the North German Confederacy extended, under a 
new name, to the Southern States. The Constitu- 
tion of the Empire is essentially that of the Con- 
federacy adopted in 1867 and confers no power on 
the Emperor which he had not already as President 
of the Confederation. William I, in his unassum- 
ing way, repeatedly declared that he had no other 
wish than to be the commander-in-chief of the Con- 
federation and " primus inter pares, 37 the first among 
equals. 

But the foreign and internal policies of the new 



21,6 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

Empire were fraught with difficult problems. As to 
the former, the signal, and rapid rise of the Empire 
was not at all welcomed by several of the other 
Powers, and it was, therefore, Bismarck's great aim 
to protect the new state by alliances. The first at- 
tempt in this direction was seen in the " Dreikai- 
serbundnis" with Austria-Hungary and Russia 
(1872-1877). Later on, when, as a result of the 
Russo-Turkish War, in spite of Bismarck's en- 
deavors to play the part of the "honest broker" 
at the Congress of Berlin (1878), this entente was 
shaken, the bonds between Austria-Hungary and 
Germany were drawn tighter, and in the following 
year Bismarck brought about an alliance with Aus- 
tria-Hungary, which, when joined by Italy in 1883, 
became the Triple- Alliance, the league of the three 
great powers of Central Europe. 

After Bismarck had strengthened Germany's posi- 
tion on the Continent, the Empire could safely em- 
bark on its colonial policy. In 1884, Southwest 
Africa, Kamerun, and Togo were occupied, in the 
following two years German East Africa, a part of 
New Guinea and of the adjacent islands in the Pa- 
cific. Thus the transition of Germany to a colonial 
policy became an accomplished fact. 

During the same period the decided preponder- 
ance of Germany on the Continent, resulting from 
the Franco-Prussian War, was greatly increased 



THE NEW EMPIRE 237 

The Emperor personally supervised the military 
training of his troops in every detail. Yearly it 
was his aim to review his troops at the imperial 
maneuvers to satisfy himself about the efficiency 
and preparedness of his army. A strong navy was 
begun to be built. Kiel and Wilhelmshaven were 
turned into gigantic naval bases, and the building 
of the Baltic Canal, which joins the Bay of Kiel 
with the Elbe River, was begun. The population, 
which in 1871 was about forty-one millions, in 19 10 
amounted to over sixty-five millions. The wealth 
of the country arising from commerce and industry 
increased even more astoundingly. 

The home policy during the first years of the Em- 
pire was on the whole determined by the constel- 
lation of parties within the House of Representa- 
tives {Reichstag). The leading parties of that 
period were : the Conservatives, the Free Conserva- 
tives, the National Liberals, the Centre, and the 
Party of Progress (Fortschrittspartei) . Gradually 
these political parties, all of which had been organ- 
ized before 1871, began to adapt themselves to new 
conditions, but their development was seriously 
hampered by Bismarck's attempt to break up the 
Centre Party, which he considered dangerous to the 
future welfare of the Empire. This great conflict, 
called " Kulturkampf" came to a close in 1887. It 
will be treated more fully in the following chapter. 



238 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

In 1878, after the attempts made by Hodel and 
Nobiling on the life of William I, Bismarck deter- 
mined to open the attack on Social Democracy. 
The Socialist Law was passed, prohibiting and heav- 
ily penalizing the organizations, societies, meetings, 
and press of Social Democracy. The tangible re- 
sult of these measures of repression were to impel 
the Socialists to renewed secret activity throughout 
the whole Empire. 

In the following year Bismarck inaugurated his 
greatest achievement in domestic politics. To fur- 
ther the interests of agriculture and industry, the 
two most extensive branches of production in the 
Empire, small protective duties were imposed upon 
agricultural and industrial imports. In 1881 a mes- 
sage from the Throne announced the inauguration 
of a policy of social reform in favor of the working 
classes by a series of great constructive measures. 
Before the end of 1889, compulsory insurance of 
working men against sickness, accident, disability, 
and old age was provided for by legislation. During 
all this time, the Centre more than any other party 
directed its attention to social welfare in the Empire 
and to the school question in the individual states. 
It became the leading party in the Reichstag. 

William I, who died on March 9, 1888, was suc- 
ceeded by his only son, Frederick William, who as- 



THE NEW EMPIRE 239 

sumed the title of Emperor Frederick III. Un- 
fortunately, this splendid monarch's rule lasted only 
99 days ; a treacherous throat disease caused his pre- 
mature death, on June 15, 1888. 



XXXVI 

THE KULTURKAMPF 

The Franco-German War had hardly terminated, 
when Prince Bismarck, the " Iron Chancellor," inau- 
gurated a religious persecution. After he had de- 
feated the Catholic states of Germany and Austria, 
humiliated France, and founded the New German 
Empire, he measured his strength against the Catho- 
lic Church. Blinded by success, he emulated the 
first Napoleon. Filled with the principles of Prus- 
sian absolutism and brought up in the traditional 
Protestant misconceptions regarding the Catholic 
Church, he saw in her the enemy of national devel- 
opment. He aimed at the nationalization of the 
Catholic Church and her subjugation to the State. 

Then began what is called the " Kulturkampf," 

that is the Conflict of Culture. It was such indeed, 

but in a sense different from that which was implied 

by its originators. It was a conflict between two 

cultures, not, as they said, between German and 

Latin, but between Catholic and anti-Catholic; nay 

more, as the Protestants themselves later realized, 

a conflict between Christian and anti-Christian cul- 

240 



THE KULTURKAMPF 241 

ture, the world-old struggle between religion and 
infidelity. 

The famous laws were enacted which go by the 
name of May Laws, because passed in the month of 
May of successive years. First the Jesuits and the 
orders allied with them, as the law said, among them 
the Redemptorists, were banished from the Empire, 
later on the other religious orders. Finally, violent 
attacks were made on the rights of bishops and 
secular clergy. All ecclesiastical penalties were for- 
bidden, the education of the clergy and the appoint- 
ment to ecclesiastical positions were to be controlled 
by the government; priests were allowed to appeal 
from the regulations of their bishops to a special 
government court, whose decision should be final. 
A bishop who, after the beginning of the conflict, 
exercised any of his functions, from ordaining a 
priest to consecrating the holy oils outside of his 
diocese, or failed to propose a candidate for a vacant 
post within an appointed time ; a priest in possession 
of a benefice before the beginning of the conflict 
who said mass, administered the sacraments of bap- 
tism or penance, or carried the consolations of holy 
religion to the sick and dying outside of his district, 
or a priest performing any sacerdotal function with- 
out State permission, was first fined for every 
single case, then deprived of his income, finally im- 
prisoned or exiled either from a specified district 



242 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

or from the Empire. Under the operation of these 
laws all the bishops, save three, and 1,770 priests 
were, up to the year 1880, imprisoned, exiled, or 
dead, without being replaced; 9,000 religious, 7,763 
of them women, were driven from their peaceful 
homes into misery and destitution after the expul- 
sion of the Jesuits and affiliated orders; 601 par- 
ishes, comprising about 650,000 souls, were entirely 
destitute of spiritual care, while 584 other parishes 
with over 1,500,000 souls were inadequately served. 
These were flagrant violations of the sacred lib- 
erties of the Church, infringements upon the fun- 
damental laws of the Prussian Constitution. To re- 
move this objection, and to clear the ground for still 
more drastic legislation, Articles 15, 16, and 18, 
which guaranteed the rights of the Catholic Church, 
were first altered, and later in the conflict, simply 
annulled. The bishops all strenuously resisted the 
intolerable arrogance of the government. Catho- 
lics, sneeringly but justly, said that Bismarck wanted 
to play the Pope, and it was his desire that Catho- 
lics learn their theology from his professors. Sev- 
eral bishops were sent to prison, the Archbishop of 
Cologne for six months. Every new measure of 
religious tyranny was met by the protests of the 
clergy, jointly or individually, and by the passive 
but effective condemnation of the laity. Under the 
magnificent leadership of Mallinckrodt, Windthorst, 



THE KULTURKAMPF 243 

Schorlemer-Alst, the Reichenspergers, etc., and their 
worthy successors, the Centre Party, with increased 
representation in the Reichstag, won in succeeding 
elections, finally obtained the balance of power, and 
by its fearless enunciation of clearly-defined princi- 
ples of law and truth and by its wonderful cohesion 
on all questions of religion, became and still is the 
admiration of the world and the champion defen- 
der of the Church in Germany. In this noble strug- 
gle Pius IX never ceased to encourage the German 
Catholics by his apostolic word. 

•The government was doomed to disappointment. 
The loyalty of the German Catholics to the Church 
and the Holy See remained unshaken. The num- 
ber of clergymen submitting to the May Laws was 
a bare twenty — -out of a total of over 4,000 — in 
the whole Kingdom of Prussia, and they were 
shunned by Catholics as traitors, and ostracized. 
In the dioceses deprived of their pastors, the episco- 
pal power was exercised by delegates unknown to 
the public but promptly obeyed by the Catholic 
people. The Bishop of Paderborn personally ad- 
ministered his diocese from Belgium. In the arch- 
diocese of Posen and Gnesen an association of 
young priests secretly discharged their pastoral 
duties in the vacant parishes. Espionage and priest- 
hunting availed little and soon fell into universal 
contempt. The fruits of the Kulturkampf began 



244 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

to ripen. Under the new education laws morality 
perceptibly decreased. The Emperor, half-hearted 
in the contest from the beginning, became alarmed 
at the dangers threatening the country, and openly 
proclaimed the necessity of religion and Christian 
education for his people. Bismarck himself re- 
luctantly acknowledged his cause defeated by the 
unflinching loyalty of the German Catholics. He 
noticed with dismay the increase of Socialism which 
spread in a disquieting manner in Protestant dis- 
tricts. Finally, after the death of Pope Pius IX he 
began negotiations with Leo XIII, and gradually, 
one after another, the iniquitous laws were 
amended or repealed. Bismarck, in the height of 
the struggle, had proudly and defiantly declared: 
" We shall not go to Canossa," as Henry IV had 
done to seek reconciliation with the Pope. Under 
the circumstances he prudently thought it expedient 
to submit, and he " went to Canossa." Further- 
more, he needed the Catholics against the Liberals 
in his new policy of protection. He needed the 
Pope himself whom he had persecuted so long, to 
aid him in both the internal and external difficulties 
of his administration. In 1878, the " Iron Chan- 
cellor " opened negotiations with Leo XIII. In the 
following year he dropped the ultra-liberal Dr. 
Falk, for many years minister of public worship and 
a bitter enemy of the Catholic Church, and his 



THE KULTURKAMPF 245 

policy* The satisfactory way in which Leo XIII 
mediated between Germany and Spain in a dispute 
about the possession of the Caroline Islands — 
recognizing Spain's right to the islands whilst secur- 
ing valuable commercial concessions to Germany, 
1885 — greatly improved the relations between 
Rome and Berlin. All hostile legislation ceased. 
Concessions were made on both sides. One by one 
the usurped powers over the Catholic Church were 
given up by the Prussian government. After 1887, 
State interference in the administration of the 
Church and in the education for the priesthood, was, 
to a great part, abandoned. 



XXXVII 

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS UNDER WILLIAM II 

William II, who after the death of his father, 
Frederick III, ascended the throne, June 15, 1888, 
spoke at the opening of the Prussian Parliament for 
religious toleration and the termination of the Kul- 
turkampf and pledged himself to maintain religious 
peace in the countries under his rule. Wishing to 
make Germany as speedily as possible a sharer in 
the world's commerce, he realized that to attain this 
end internal tranquillity was as necessary as ex- 
ternal peace. 

In order to manifest to the world his love for 
peace, the young Emperor, soon after his ascension, 
personally paid his respects to most of the sovereigns 
of Europe. Old friendly relations were strength- 
ened, new ones established. Everywhere he was 
received most splendidly and cordially. 

Notwithstanding his love for peace, the Emperor 

has always been bent on protecting Germany against 

a possible hostile attack and continuously increasing 

and strengthening the army and navy. 

Especially he had at heart the economic welfare 

246 



UNDER WILLIAM II 247 

of his people. In the care for the working class he 
has progressed along the lines marked out by his 
immediate predecessors. He saw to it that the all 
but unanimous desire of the Reichstag to complete 
the compulsory insurance legislation by comprehen- 
sive factory legislation was satisfied. 

On March 18, 1890, he dismissed Bismarck, who 
for nearly a generation had exercised the greatest 
power. The first chancellor of the new Empire 
was replaced by Count Caprivi. July 1st of the 
same year, the imperial Government made a treaty 
with Great Britain, by which the island of Heligo- 
land was ceded to Germany, in return for consider- 
able advantages in respect to boundary lines in East 
Africa. The clear-headed ruler evidently foresaw 
the great strategic importance of Heligoland, lying 
before the mouths of the Elbe and Weser, in the 
event of war. The island now belongs to the prov- 
ince of Schleswig-Holstein. The German Govern- 
ment, in 1897, leased from China for a term of 99 
years Kiautschou Bay with the Hinterland belong- 
ing to it. In 1899, Germany purchased from Spain 
the Caroline and Marian Islands in the Pacific 
Ocean. The German transatlantic merchant ma- 
rine held for many years the record for the race 
across the Atlantic, and even in Africa and Asia, 
Germany promised to become a very serious rival 
of England. 



248 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

The period since the beginning of William II's 
rule has been one of exceptional prosperity through- 
out the country. From forty-one millions in 1871, 
the population increased to over sixty-five millions 
in 19 10. Of these more than sixty-five millions, 
about 36 per cent, are Catholic. Among the im- 
portant measures passed during this period were the 
completion of the unified legal codes and the Naval 
Acts, aimed at raising Germany to a maritime power 
of the first rank. In the midst of this era of pros- 
perity Bismarck died (1898). 

The alliance with Austria, which had continued 
from 1872, was enlarged into the Triple Alliance, 
in 1883. By his efforts to separate Austria and 
Italy from the Triple Alliance and by his ententes 
with the other Powers of Europe, Edward VII of 
England, jealous of Germany's wonderful commer- 
cial growth, isolated his rival (1907, Triple-Entente 
between England, Russia, and France). Gradually 
the English nation had begun to accustom itself to 
the idea of a German peril, and finally to join the 
ranks of those opposed to Germany. The Empire's 
prestige, however, was greatly enhanced (1908— 
1909) by the re-establishment of German influence 
in international politics, owing to its firm support 
of Austria-Hungary in the Balkan crisis. It put 
an end to the isolation of Germany and strength- 



UNDER WILLIAM II 249 

ened the bonds of the Triple Alliance. In 19 13, 
on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of 
his accession to the throne, Emperor William II 
was universally praised as a Prince of Peace. 



APPENDIX 



CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE 
GERMAN EMPIRE 

The German Empire forms a federal state with 
strong centralization of authority, the component 
states having surrendered many of their rights and 
prerogatives. In all essentials the constitution of 
the German Empire is that of the North German 
Confederation of 1867. 

The German Empire consists of: 

1. Four Kingdoms, viz., Prussia, Bavaria, Sax- 
ony, Wurttemberg; 

2. Six grand-duchies: Oldenburg, Mecklen- 
burg- Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Sachsen- 
Weimar-Eisenach, Hessen-Darmstadt, Baden; 

3. Five duchies: Braunschweig, Anhalt, Sach- 
sen-Meiningen, Sachsen-Koburg-Gotha, Sachsen- 
Altenburg ; 

4. Seven principalities: Schaumburg-Lippe, 
Lippe-Detmold, Waldeck, Schwarzburg-Sonders- 
hausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Reuss Younger 
Line, and Reuss Elder Line ; 

250 



CONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE 251 

5. Three free imperial cities : Bremen, Hamburg, 
Liibeck ; 

6. One free imperial territory (" Reichsland"), 
Alsace-Lorraine. 

The head of this federal state is the Emperor; 
the King of Prussia being entitled to the imperial 
dignity and exercising the imperial power in the 
name of the confederated states. The Emperor 
is the highest executive ; he represents the Empire in 
foreign affairs and can declare a defensive war, and 
make peace as well as enter into treaties with other 
nations; appointing ambassadors and ministers and 
receiving the accredited representatives of other na- 
tions. To declare offensive war, the consent of the 
federal council (Bundesrath) is a prerequisite. 

The legislative functions of the Empire are vested 
in the Bundesrath and the Imperial Diet (Reichs- 
tag). The members of the Bundesrath, 58 in num- 
ber, are nominated for each session by the govern- 
ments of the individual states. Of these 58, Prus- 
sia appoints seventeen, Bavaria six, Saxony and 
Wurttemberg four each, Baden and Hesse three 
each, Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Brunswick two 
each, and the remaining seventeen states of the Em- 
pire one member each. The members of the 
Reichstag, 397 in number, are elected for a space of 
five years on the basis of an absolutely democratic, 
equal and universal suffrage. Every German citi- 



252 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

zen who has completed his twenty-fifth year and is 
of unblemished character, is entitled to vote. 
Active army and navy men may not exercise the 
right of suffrage. Legislative activity in the 
Reichstag is limited to military and naval affairs, 
rights of domicile and freedom to emigrate, postal 
and telegraph lines, coinage of money, weights and 
measures, commerce, internal revenues and protec- 
tive tariffs. 

Every bill passed by the Reichstag requires a ma- 
jority vote in the Bundesrath. After passing the 
Bundesrath, the sanction of the Emperor is neces- 
sary, and before it becomes a law it must be coun- 
tersigned and promulgated by the chancellor of the 
Empire (Reichskanzler) . 

The Reichskanzler — at the present writing Dr. 
von Bethmann-Hollweg — is appointed by the 
Kaiser and is the chief ministerial official of the 
Empire. He is the president of the Bundesrath, the 
intermediary between the Kaiser, the Bundesrath, 
and the Reichstag, and supervises the execution of 
the imperial laws. He is the sole responsible official 
of the Empire. 

Subordinated to the Reichskanzler are the fol- 
lowing imperial departments : 

(a) Auswdrtiges Amt — Foreign Department, 

(b) Reichsamt des Innern — Imperial Depart- 
ment of the Interior, 



CONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE 253 

(c) Reichsmarineamt — Imperial Admiralty, 

(d) Reichsjustizamt — Imperial Department of 
Justice, 

(e) Reichsschatzamt — Imperial Treasury De- 
partment, 

(f) Reichseisenbahnamt — Imperial Department 
of Railways and 

(g) Reichspostamt — Imperial Department of 
Postmaster General; 

besides the imperial colonial department, the im- 
perial bank, and a few other departments. At the 
head of each department is a secretary, who acts as 
the representative of the Reichskanzler and directs 
the affairs of the department. He is always un- 
der the control of the chancery of the Empire, thus 
bringing all departments in unison, the duties of 
each department well defined and never overlapping. 



3 






? ■ 



\ 

- 

II <u 

THE GERMAN MILITARY SYSTEM 

- ^4 &- 

77^ Army. — The inception of the imperial army 
may be traced to the reforms that followed the bat- 
tle of Jena. Germany was under the heel of Na- 
^ poleon, Prussia compelled to reduce its army to 42,- 
000 men. The latter employed the time of her 
weakness and humiliation to reform her administra- 
tion and army. Scharnhorst quietly reorganized 
the army*pn the basis of universal military service 
without increasing the active strength of the army 
beyond the number allowed by Napoleon. For as 
soon as a quota of recruits were sufficiently drilled, t 
they were quietly sent home and replaced by an- 
other, which in turn had their places taken by others, 
co until, within a short space of time, Prussia had an 
army of more than 200,000 trained soldiers which 
later proved the undoing of Napoleon. Y^ S b t/f^c)| 

Scharnhorst's system was further elaborated and 
built up, the final principle of rapid mobilization be- 
ing due to von Moltke. The German loves the 
army and is proud of his military organization, be- 
cause it is efficient, because it makes a man both in 

J 



3 




GERMAN MILITARY SYSTEM 255 

body and spirit out of the humblest citizen, because 
it is the very backbone of German progress. 

Every male German is subject to enforced mili- 
tary service, and no substitution is allowed in the 
performance of this duty. Liability begins at the 
age of seventeen, and actual service, as a rule, at the 
age of twenty. The size of the army in time of 
peace, the u Friedens-Pr'dsenzst'drke" is fixed by 
imperial legislation. Before the outbreak of the 
present war the number of privates in the ranks 
amounted to about 700,000 ; to these add about 80,- 
000 non-commissioned officers, 24,000 officers, 
9,000 one-year volunteers, and a great many phy- 
sicians, officers steadily employed in the army 
hospitals, commissaries, etc. The total fighting 
strength has been placed at as high a figure as thir- 
teen millions. 

An infantry regiment consists of three battalions, 
supported by five squadrons of cavalry, with two or 
three battalions of light artillery. Two or three 
regiments form a brigade, two or three brigades 
of infantry and cavalry with additional heavy field 
- artillery constitute a division. Two to three di- 
visions with the necessary contingents of foot ar- 
tillery, pioneers, and " train "-soldiers form an army 
corps. There are, in all, 23 army corps in time of 
peace. 

Upon enlistment the private serves two years 

^/JTo^A M<t4 So W)IH$%/£Ke -Otf 



256 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

(three in the case of cavalry and horse artillery re- 
cruits) with the colors. If at the end of his time 
he chooses to leave the army, he is assigned to the 
reserve {Ersatz), until he is 32 years of age. Dur- 
ing this time he is liable for maneuver service on 
three different occasions, varying from two to eight 
weeks each (in practice usually six). After quit- 
ting the reserve the soldier becomes a member of 
the national guard {Landwehr, from 32 to 39), 
during which time he is liable for service at one 
maneuver of two weeks. Except in case of war this 
ends his active connection with the army. That 
portion of the annual classes which is dismissed un- 
trained, first goes to the Ersatz without arms ; from 
32 to 39 to the second Landwehr. These able- 
bodied supernumeraries are not liable for service ex- 
cept in case of war, and then must be trained. 

From 39 to 45 the man who has served with the 
colors is assigned to the national defence {Land- 
sturm). There is also a second ban of Landsturm 
of the untrained, to which may be drafted young 
men from 17 to 20. However, they are unlikely 
ever to come into action, and even if they should, it 
would be only for service in guarding property, rail- 
road lines and the like. They may attend also to 
the harvesting of crops, and similar duties. 

The officers are recruited either from the Cadet 
Corps or from amongst those men, of sufficient so- 



GERMAN MILITARY SYSTEM 257 

cial standing, who join the ranks -as " avantageurs " 
with a view of obtaining commissions. Reserve 
and Landwehr officers are drawn principally from 
the one year volunteers, mostly college graduates, 
who show the requisite ability and are recommended 
by the higher officers. 

This system of reserve officers provides the Ger- 
man army with a very large number of highly 
trained men competent and qualified to serve as 
regular army officers in case of war. 

The Navy. — The German navy is of recent ori- 
gin. Up to the accession of Emperor William II 
the increase in the navy was slow. But towards 
the end of the last century Germany started on a 
new naval policy, by which her fleet was largely and 
rapidly increased. 

The number of warships is about 80 at the pres- 
ent time, besides a great many torpedo boats, de- 
stroyers, and submarines of great efficiency, with an 
active naval personnel of over 30,000. In addition 
there is a reserve of more than 100,000 officers and 
men. In 1889 the administration was transferred 
-from the ministry of war to the imperial admiralty 
(Reichsmarineamt) , at the head of which is the 
naval secretary of state. 



Ill 

SOCIAL LEGISLATION 

Germany has become a type for social legislation. 
Even before 1870, big industries and corporations 
had laid bare the need of social reform work for 
the benefit of the hard pressed and economically de- 
pendent workmen. Little protection was then given 
to the working men, and restrictions on the employ- 
ment of women and children were inadequate, as 
there was no efficient system of factory inspection. 
It was difficult for the workmen by their own exer- 
tions to ameliorate their conditions, for the employ- 
ers had full liberty of association, which the law 
denied the workmen. Wilhelm Emmanuel von 
Ketteler, Bishop of Mayence, justly called the pio- 
neer of social reform, was the first to point his 
finger at the great social problems. Being chiefly 
concerned for the preservation of family life, which 
was threatened by the growth of the factory system 
and by the teaching of the Social Democrats, the 
Bishop maintained that it was the duty of the State 
to secure working men work and provision during 
sickness and old age. The general interest of the 
Church in the social question was recognized by a 

258 



SOCIAL LEGISLATION 259 

congress of the German bishops at Fulda. Ket- 
teler's work was continued by other great men. 
Members of the Centre Party brought forward mo- 
tions in the Reichstag demanding new social legis- 
lation. In 1877, the " Galen " bill, introduced 
on behalf of the Centre Party by Count von Galen, 
a distinguished Westphalian representative in the 
Reichstag, was the first step along the road of social 
legislation in the German Empire. It is no exag- 
geration to say that all that has been achieved in the 
field of promoting the welfare of workmen by legis- 
lation, was principally due to the activity of the 
Centre Party and secured the necessary vote only 
through the cooperation of its members. 

Circumscribing the individual liberties ^f or the 
sake of the public welfare, but especially the pro- 
tection and social betterment of the working man 
and the middle class, has been the norm of social 
legislation since the beginning of the eighties. The 
imperial message of Nov. 17, 188 1, developed the 
program of a threefold obligatory insurance, viz., 
insurance of workmen against accident, the estab- 
lishment of sick-funds, and insurance against all 
age and incapacity to earn a livelihood. 

In 1883, the Law regulating insurance against ill- 
ness was enacted, in 1884 that of insurance against 
accident, and in 1889 the Law concerning insurance 
against old age and incapacity. The system was 



260 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

further modified by acts passed in 1900 and 1903. 
Here are the most important facts concerning 
German social legislation: 

I. Insurance Against Illness 

(a) Scope: The insurance against illness pro- 
vides an income for workmen incapacitated for 
work through sickness. 

(b) Members: Every wage worker is obliged 
to take out this insurance and must join one of the 
various sick- funds. 

(c) Assessments to the sick-fund amount to 
about three per cent, of the wages. The workmen 
contribute at the rate of two-thirds, the employers 
at the rate of one-third. 

(d) Benefits: In case of illness the insured, as 
a rule, receives free medical treatment and medi- 
cine, and in case of inability to earn a livelihood, 
from the fourth day after being taken ill, at least 
half of his daily wages as sick benefit money. At 
his death, his next of kin generally receive an 
amount equal to twenty days' wages. The sick 
funds annually pay out more than one hundred mil- 
lion marks as sick benefit moneys. 

II. Accident Insurance 

(a) Scope: Accident insurance makes provi- 
sions for workmen in hazardous industries who may 



SOCIAL LEGISLATION 261 

be injured at work and when fatal the next of kin 
receive compensation. The sick- funds, as a rule, 
do not assist the sick workman for more than 26 
weeks. But often the workman has not completely 
recovered within that time; he may not be able to 
work again. In these cases the accident insurance 
is to protect the workman and his family against 
need and misery. 

(b) Members: Those workmen who are em- 
ployed in extra hazardous industries, e.g., building 
construction, mining, factories, foundries, railroad 
and shipping. 

(c) Assessments to the expenses of accident in- 
surance are made exclusively by the employers. 

(d) Benefits: A workman that is injured while 
at his work, receives, beginning with the fourteenth 
week, free medical treatment including medicine, 
and an annuity. For injuries involving total in- 
capacity to earn anything, the compensation is fixed 
at the ratio of two-thirds of his last earnings. 
When the income is diminished by reason of such 
injuries, an amount sufficient to make the earning 
equal two-thirds of the former wages is paid as in- 
surance. 

Should death result as a consequence of such in- 
juries, the following payments are made : ( 1 ) the 
twenty fold of the fixed daily earnings to defray the 
expenses of interment, (2) an annuity amounting to 



262 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

one-fifth of the last year's earnings, for the parents 
and grandparents of the deceased, if the latter was 
their only support; the same amount annually for 
the widow of the injured, as long as she remains 
unmarried, and three-twentieths of the earnings for 
each of the children up to the age of fifteen. How- 
ever, the annuity of widow and children must not 
exceed three-fifths of the annual earnings. 

III. Insurance Against Invalidity 

(a) Scope: This law provides for the invalids 
and for the aged workers. Workmen incapacitated 
by accident do not come in this class. Nor are those 
workmen entitled to the benefits of this system of 
insurance who have contracted their incapacity wil- 
fully or intentionally either in the act of committing 
a crime or by stubbornly not obeying the doctor's 
orders, for these protective laws for the ameliora- 
tion of social conditions are aimed at helping those 
workers overtaken by want through no fault of their 
own. 

(b) Members: Insurance against old age and 
invalidity comprehends all persons who have en- 
tered upon their seventeenth year, and are not earn- 
ing more than two thousand marks annually. 

(c) Assessments: These are regulated in pro- 
portion to the amount of the annual earnings. 
There are five grades : 



SOCIAL LEGISLATION 263 

1. Grade under 350 marks; weekly assessments 
14 pfennige. 

2. Grade 350—550 marks; weekly assessments 20 
pfennige. 

3. Grade 550-850 marks; weekly assessments 24 
pfennige. 

4. Grade 850—1150 marks; weekly assessments 
30 pfennige. 

5. Grade 1150 and over; weekly assessments 36 
pfennige. 

(d) Benefits: Every member incapacitated from 
earning his livelihood receives a fixed sum, called 
" Invalidenrente," annually. Whoever is not able 
to earn as much as one-third of his former wages 
is included. The amount of the pension is deter- 
mined by the amount of assessments paid and the 
length of the insurance. 

Every workman having reached the age of 70 
and still capable of earning a livelihood receives an 
old age pension, no matter whether he continues 
working and earning or not. 

(e) Refunding of Assessments : When the obli- 
gation to insure oneself no longer obtains, the in- 
sured receives back one-half of all the paid in 
assessments, provided at least 200 weeks have been 
paid in. The employer does not receive any re- 
funds. 

The above short outline is all in practical working 



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264 A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY 

order, but the body of laws being that of a living 
people is continually being added to and modified by 
each succeeding Reichstag. Professor Burgess * 
has summarized the result of German achievement 
in the field of social service as follows: 
>^"Its [Germany's] economic system is by far the 
most efficient, most genuinely democratic which ex- 
ists at the present moment in the world, or has ever 
existed. There is no great state in the world to-day 
n in which there is so general and even a distribution 
of the fruits of civilization, spiritual and material, 
\ among all the people as in the United States of Ger- 
many. And there is no state, great or small, in 
which the general plane of civilization is so high. 
Education is universal and illiteracy is completely 
stamped out ; there are no slums, no proletariat, and 
no pauperism ; prosperity is universal ; and the sense 
of duty is the governing principle of life, public and 
private, from the highest to the lowest. The insti- 
tutions of the country are adapted and adjusted to 
bring each individual person into the place and 
sphere for which he or she is best capacitated, thus 
avoiding loss by the abrasions of economic friction." 






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1 The European War of 1914: Its Causes, Purposes and 
Probable Results, by Dr. John W. Burgess, formerly Pro- 
fessor of Constitutional and International Law and Dean of 
the Faculty of Political Science, Philosophy and Pure Science 
in Columbia University. (A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 
I9I5-) 

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